It was another beautiful day in the land of Turkey. It was also a long day and we must be up early in the morning, so this blog will be short. We only visited two places today, but they were filled with ancient architecture and culture.

Our first visit was to the ancient city of Hierapolis. Hierapolis is known for its hot springs and the geological formation of a giant limestone deposit which makes for white “frozen cascades” on the side of the mountain. It is quite a beautiful site and the springs are very warm. The city has little biblical significance, but does have a place in church history after the first century.

The question for the day was, “How many sarcophagi have you seen today?” Most people don’t know what a sarcophagi is, including myself prior to making my trip to Israel just a few weeks ago, and even less have seen one. But today, I would have answered that question by saying, “Hundreds.” Sarcophagi are basically stone caskets. Hierapolis has an impressive necropolis (ancient cemetery: we are learning all kinds of new words today), containing over 1200 sarcophoghi. We also saw an ancient theater here and the Arch of Domitian.

After a great lunch at a little restaurant called Anatolia, and a swing in the hammock, we went to Aphrodisias. Again, this ancient city has no

biblical significance, but showed us more of 1^st
century life in Asia Minor. We saw ruins of ancient temples, theaters and most impressive of all, a 1200 foot hippodrome, which was an event center for everything from chariot races to gladiator games. I took video of my father-in-law, Olen Britnell, running down the tunneled ramp and into the hippodrome like a gladiator.

Tonight we are in the modern city of Kusadasi, which sits on the Aegean Sea, and is located just 30 minutes south of the ancient city of Ephesus. Tomorrow we will tour Ephesus, which will probably be one of the most impressive sites of the whole tour.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom Diane Webb and my wife Barbara Jo – the two most influential women in my life.