The museum in Antalya largely has holdings of things found at Perga, but overall it is worth visiting especially for it’s amazing collection of period statues, including the statues of Emperor and Plancia Magna, as well as a collection of ornate sarcophagi which rival those found in the Istanbul museum which we have already explored, except these are from a later period than most of those in the Istanbul museum. But let’s start with a small horned altar for sacrifices….... Read more
This will be the last Turkey post until the New Year when we will return with a series of posts on Cappadocia. The large stadium at the bottom of the main roads in Ephesus is impressive, and suggests a considerable population of this city when it was built— perhaps as many as a quarter of a million. Unfortunately, one of my tour group nearly went down for the count due to an out of control Roman centurion…. 🙂 This stadium... Read more
The city of Perge was in fact the first place Paul really preached on the mainland of the western part of Turkey. And it had long been an impressive city back in the Hellenistic age and even before. Here is a little map which will show you the relationship between Perge, Aspendos, and Attalia. Perge was indeed a walled city with famous towers that date to the Hellenistic era. Let’s first look at a couple of scale models of... Read more
Perhaps the most intact, and impressive Roman theater in the whole ancient world is at Aspendos, near Perga on the coast. Consider these shots… This is a theater still used today for plays, concerts, and more. But we need to consider it as an ancient theater in Paul’s world where Greek and Roman comedies and tragedies were staged, and perhaps where some small scale gladiatorial contests were held in the pit… not the stage. So let’s go inside and have... Read more
There is really virtually nothing to see in Konya of direct relevance to the study of the NT, though nearby you can go to a caravanserai and see the whirling dervishes, which is fascinating. Instead of doing that on this trip we went and visited perhaps the oldest church in all of Turkey, and one founded by Queen Helena, on her way from Constantinople to build churches in Jerusalem and Bethlehem…. The church is in the charming little village of... Read more
The little museum in Yalvac (aka Pisidian Antioch) is well worth seeing. It has a room dedicated to Paul and the remains of his period, though sadly they’ve misidentified the Sergius Paulus inscription stone as about Paul of Tarsus. More on this below. It’s a stone Mark Wilson and I found out in the courtyard beside the museum and asked them to put inside, which they did and then somebody from Ankara involved in antiquities decided it was a Byzantine... Read more
Pisidian Antioch. If you check your map of western Turkey you will find today the town is called Yalvac. And in order to get there from Perga near the south coast, one has to climb huge mountains, risk groups of bandits and various other dangers. So the question is why in the world, having started in Perga didn’t Paul and Barnabas continue along the coast towards Tarsus and then through the Cilician gates back to Antioch? Why Pisidian Antioch. And... Read more
The new museum in Antioch is beautiful and unlike the old one, climate-controlled. The two major reasons to go to the new Antioch museum is to see the Alexander the Great exhibit, featuring his victory at nearby Issos (less than 4 miles up the coast from Antioch. The place is now called Iskenderun). The second good reason is the large amount of Hittite and related holdings. November 5th, 333 B.C. was a big day for Alexander, for Issos was where... Read more
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