Some of the seven churches of Revelation really provide us with little or nothing to see in the present (e.g. Thyatira and to lesser degree Philadelphia), but Sardis is a different story, and we will consider it in this post. Like so many of these cities, the reason we find it out in a field and not close to any real city is because of the earthquakes which destroyed or severely damaged so many of them that they were eventually... Read more

The Asklepion is near to, but outside the lower city of Pergamon.  It was reached from the acropolis by a via sacra, or sacred way. These special roads were not uncommon when one had a major temple complex which was not right in the city. Another good example would be the sacred way in Ephesus that led from the city to the Temple of Artemis.  In Latin this covered walkway which began from the theater at the base of the... Read more

Pergamon.  This site makes the acropolis in Athens look like a molehill, and it gives new meaning to the phrase nosebleed seats in stadium or theater. You will soon see exactly what I mean.  Here are two illustrations of what the site looks like (which by the way takes a ski lift to get to, normally). Let’s focus on the theater hanging on the side of a cliff first…. To make matters worse,  the god of wine, Dionysius had his... Read more

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Modern day Izmir is in fact Biblical Smyrna, where Polycarp was martyred and died in about 155 A.D., and before that we hear about the troubles of the church there in Rev. 2.8-10 speaks already in the 90s A.D. about the suffering of this church which is financially strapped, but spiritually rich.  Today, the most important dig is at the ancient agora, and we will visit it now. Izmir today is a large port city of about 4.5 million people. ... Read more

There are plenty of other things to see in the Istanbul Museum besides sarcophagi.   There are massive column heads, this one is Ionic… There are interesting bas relief on stone, like this one with women riding horses… There are cupid like figures preparing their roosters for a cockfight… We have incredibly decorated columns…. We have grave steles which would have been erected by mausoleums, presumably this sailor died at sea, and perhaps his body was  not recovered so the family... Read more

In the courtyard of the Istanbul Museum there are various things to see, including Aslan!  Yes, the Turkish word for lion is aslan, and C.S. Lewis used it in his Narnia tales. In fact this is a Sam’al lion statue, from 10,000 B.C.  Made of dolemite, it comes from near Gaziantep. One of the major kinds of the some 60,000 holdings this museum has is sarcophagi.  This one is interesting not only for the family scene on its side, but... Read more

The Istanbul Archaeology Museum is a goldmine of antiquities and treasures of various sorts, including things collected over many years by the Ottomans from their Empire. There are two major problems with this museum: 1) it has nowhere near enough space to properly display its holdings (much like the problem at the old Museum of Egyptology in Cairo), and 2) also like the old Cairo museum it is not climate controlled.  Part of the result is that like other such... Read more

Right next to the Blue mosque in the central region of old Istanbul stands a long oblong corridor where the hippodrome once was.  No, a hippodrome is not a race course for hippos!  Hippus is a Latin word for horse, and there were chariot races here. We have learned from studying the original ancient descriptions of this site that there were four bronze horses at one end, which were pilfered from here and taken to Venice where they are stored... Read more

This post will focus on two of the most important churches in Istanbul, neither of which are active churches.  The one of course is Hagia Sophia, the other St. Irene (i.e. Eirene). Hagia Sophia was originally built in 360 A.D. by Emperor Constantius, the son of the famous Constantine.  Almost nothing remains of this original church (but see below) and so the building you now see was built between 532 and 537 A.D.  It did not become a mosque until... Read more