Museums and Mosques and Bosphorous

When you tell folks that you are going to Turkey, many times they say, with almost sarcasm - Why? What's in Turkey? They fail to realize that most of the New Testament takes place or was originally written to people who lived in what is now the land of Turkey. Turkey was Asia Minor of the New Testament world. Cities like Ephesus, Colossae, Laodicea, Philadelphia, Smyrna, Miletus, Pergamum and a lot more were located in this country that is known more for having the same name as a Thanksgiving meal, then for New Testament, Greek, or Roman history, yet more Greek and Roman history has been recovered in this country than in Italy and Greece combined. In addition to that, church history abounds in this nation and especially in the city of Istanbul. While I certainly don't subscribe to universal human government of the church or creeds of men, three councils, strongly influencing Western Christianity took place in Turkey - one in Nicaea and two in Ephesus.

Some of what we did today I'm going to pass over quickly, not because it is unimportant, but because what I want to concentrate on is SO MUCH COOLER! Of course, when I am done your suspicions of my nerdiness will be confirmed.

We began the day visiting a couple of mosques (places of worship for Muslims). The first was the Blue Mosque, which receives its name from the blue Iznik tiles and was built around 1610 A.D. The interior is quite an impressive site, as its architect constructed with domes and semi-domes that reach to 140 feet high. We had to remove our shoes to enter into the mosque because of the cleanliness of the floor. Muslims bow their forehead to the ground when praying here and they want to keep the carpets very clean. The carpets are cleaned daily (they were doing this while we were there), but the ceilings are cleaned only twice a year. Here is an interesting discovery. One might think, with such rare cleaning of the ceilings, bugs and spiders would abound, but the ink used to paint the walls has the yolk of ostrich eggs in it, which causes it to be a natural bug repellent - I'm not making this stuff up - so very few six and eight leg critters.
Close to the Blue Mosque is the Hagia Sophia, which was built originally as a church (532 A.D.), then became a mosque when Constantinople (modern Istanbul) was over taken by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, and then became a museum in 1935. It is a very impressive building, larger than the Blue Mosque.

We then walked over to the Topkapi Palace, which housed some 36 Sultans and their harems. I was quickly able to see some "interesting" things like John the Baptist's hand (in gold) and the rod of Moses, swords and daggers covered in jewels and gems worth millions of dollars. You can decide what is real and historical and what is not.

Now, if you really want some entertaining news, ask Barbara Jo about a wounded chicken and my Dodge Dakota - separate stories, but it archeology really gets you going then stick around. The highlight of my day was the Archaeological Museum. While here I saw an inscription from Hezekiah's tunnel, created around 710 B.C. to connect the Gihon Spring with the Pool of Siloam. (see 2 Kings 20:20) It describes the completion of the tunnel, which was dug by two teams starting at opposite ends digging toward each other. The inscription is found where the two teams met. It confirms that Hezekiah was a real king in the nation of Israel.

I also saw the inscription that was placed in a wall which separated the Gentiles from the court of women in Jerusalem during the time of Herod (see picture). The inscription says - cross this line Gentile and die (Norm's paraphrase version). Paul was accused of taking a Gentile into the temple, violating the law written on the wall (read Acts 21:27-31). I also saw murals of lions and other animals that hung on the walls of the city of Babylon during the time of Nebuchadnezzer (see picture); an ancient treaty made between the Hitites and the Egyptians in 1296 B.C; an inscribed cylinder made by Nabidonidus, the last king of Babylon, who is mentioned by Jeremiah; an inscribed stele of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king who attacked Israel; a large relief slab from the palace of Tiglath-pilesar III; the code of Hammurabi, which describes a moral law, similar to what God gave the Israelites and I could go on and on and on. But the really cool thing about all of this is that these things are from and about people who are mentioned in the Bible demonstrating the historical accuracy of it.

After all of this, we headed to the Grand Covered Bazaar, basically a 400 year old outlet mall of 4000 shops. Barbara Jo and my girls will be happy to know that I bought them a gift from here.

Well, after all of this, we took a ride on the Bosphorous, the body of water connecting the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. It was windy and cold, but a beautiful trip, on which I enjoyed a glass of hot apple tea. Pictured is Billy and Carol Bradford.

Tomorrow, we head out at 6:15 to catch a flight to Izmir, modern day Smyrna. To my Bible class at Athens Bible School, I look forward to your list of facts from this blog.