This was our first full day in Istanbul. It was a very full day. We were exhausted at the end. We toured the Blue Mosque, the highlight for me was the Hagia Sophia. The Blue Mosque was built in 1616, the Hagia Sophia in 537. From the outside, the Blue Mosque is beautiful, the Hagia Sophia is rather ugly. This is partially because the architect didn’t focus on how it looks from the outside, partially because they had to add buttresses to the Hagia Sophia for additional strength. Inside, the Blue Mosque is impressive, the Hagia Sophia is stunning. The supports for the Blue Mosque dome are obvious. The Hagia Sophia’s dome appears to float in mid-air. This leads to a much more spacious feeling.

About a year ago, the Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque. Muslims do not permit any representation of a person in a mosque because it is considered an icon. The only artwork that isn’t covered over is the one of an emperor on his knees before Jesus. The story is that the emperor did not have any male children. At that time, the church permitted the emperor to take a second wife, then a third; but no more than three. The emperor wanted a forth wife, which the church would not permit. The compromise was that the emperor would create art illustrating that he had asked Jesus directly, and received permission from Jesus, not the church. You can see some pictures on the web site.

The most photogenic site was the cistern under the Hagia Sophia. This was one of four cisterns. The most famous shot is of the upside-down Medusa head. The Medusa can turn men into stone. It is so bad, it scares all the other bad spirits away. This Medusa is at the bottom of the cistern, looking up, and keeping all the other bad spirits out of the water. There are a few pics of the cistern on the web site.

We had lunch as a Michelin restaurant. Unfortunately, this means the restaurant has a Michelin tire sign on the door.

I would like to clean this up, but the internet is not stable. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We took our last long bus ride today, crossing the Dardanelles, leaving Asia, and entering Europe. Gaining access to the ferry was exciting. None of us believed there was room for our bus on the ferry. That would mean waiting an hour for the next ferry. But they managed to get all the wheels on the ferry, even if the back end of the bus was hanging over the edge. They even got one more bus parallel to ours. You can see pictures of the crossing on the website. One of the pictures shows the longest suspension bridge in the world, with six lanes traversing the Dardanelles. Unfortunately, the bridge connects two small towns. Locals deride it as being the bridge to nowhere. But the exorbitant toll is undoubtedly a major reason for the light traffic on the bridge. $20 US goes a very long way in Turkiye.

Just on the European side of the Dardanelles is Gallipoli. This is where WW I started for the Ottoman Empire (soon to be Turkiye). It was the first place where Aataturk (the father of the Turks) beat the British, with very heavy losses on both sides. I don’t normally get a lot out of these kinds of visits, but it is impossible to add anything that Ataturk had to say. If you have trouble reading the picture, he said:

Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives .. you are now living in the soil of a friendly country therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Jonnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours …
You, the mothers who sent your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.

Ataturk, 1934

Finally we arrived at out hotel, where we will remain for 6 nights. It’s in the center of the historic part of Istanbul. Their lobby includes a turtle pool. You can see a pic on the website. It includes many of the people we are traveling with.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Troy was built nine times, all on the same site. It stayed on the original site because it allowed control of the Dardanelles, which let Troy tax all the goods going up an down the Dardanelles, which made Troy very rich. It was rebuilt nine times because it was destroyed eight times, mostly by people who didn’t want to pay a tax to Troy.

The archeological site is a mess because Heinrich Schliemann was a greedy man. It took him years, but he found Troy in 1870. He didn’t care about archeology. He wanted the gold and jewels. He bought a village and paid the people to dig. One lucky day he personally found the gold. He told the workers to knock off early, then spent the rest of the day and the entire night getting the gold, then left for Germany. It is not recorded what the villagers thought when they came to work the next day to find Schliemann no longer present.

Here’s an old wall at Troy. The holes were created by bees living i the mud brick.

Turkey is a big country. We’ve spent a ton of time riding in the bus, and we have another four hours or so tomorrow. The pervious several days have been unusually hot, with highs in the mid-90s. Today, the heat wave broke, making touring a much more pleasant experience.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Today we learned about quality Turkish rugs. Wool on cotton, wool on wool, silk on silk, dies, double knots, and the many many excellent reasons we should have spent over $1000 on a rug. Unfortunately, we didn’t act quickly enough and we lost our opportunity forever. (So sad, too bad.)

The highlight was visiting Ephesus. A city on this site was established by the Amazons. In turn, it was ruled by the Hittites, Greeks, Fresiens (sp? – all errors are the sole fault of our tour guide!), Syrians, and finally the Romans. It’s the best ancient city site in Turkey. If ever you visit, be sure to get the second ticket to tour the Roman house. I promise you will be blown away. But enough of the Greco-Roman stuff. It’s not surprising the Amazons had a female god named Epheza. But it didn’t stop there. Here’s an Anatolian Mother Goddess from 7000 BC. No doubt fertility was an important superpower of this god.

Here’s gold god from 580 BC.

The Roman version was Artemis. These two statues survived the period where Christians destroyed pagan statues by burying them in the sewer. Nobody found them until the archeologists started digging over 100 years ago. Artemis has all manor of animals and plants in the lower part of her body, and hundreds of breasts. She is the mother god for all of creation, and feeding the entire creation is her superpower,

Finally, here is the Ephesus theater. What does the theater have to do with female gods? St. Paul preached at the theater. He told the people that they had to stop worshiping Artemis and worship only God. The people got so riled up that they wanted to kill Paul. That would not do. Paul was a Roman citizen. Officials put Paul in jail for his own protection. They smuggled him out of Ephesus on a boat a couple of days later.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The main event today was the city of Aphrodisias. This was a pilgrim city. People traveled great distances to visit because it emphasized the female god. As our guide pointed out, This area always had a female god. One of the earliest carvings from 5,000 years ago was of a female god, obviously emphasizing fertility. Since then the female god has had many names. Sometimes she emphasized love and beauty, sometimes motherhood and protection. But there was always a female god and it was always very important in the hierarchy of the pagan gods.

Aphrodisias was more than a typical Roman town. It had the second largest coliseum in the ancient world. All around he coliseum were stalls or stores. A covered walkway allowed visitors to walk between stalls in comfort.

You’ve seen plenty of pictures of Roman town ruins. I’ll leave you with this sunset scene from our hotel, overlooking the Aegean sea. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The Hittites built the first empire with written records in this area, the next empire was built by the Pergamenes, and the Pergamenes built the city of Hierapolis. (Pay attention, there might be a test.) Hierapolis has underground limestone caves that supply water to springs in the area. Because the cave water is warmed by the Earth, it is believed to have curative powers. Because the water is high in Calcium Chloride, white deposits cover thee area. The white deposi8ts are basically the same as stalagmites and stalactites in a cave.

Besides having curative powers and offering a staggering view, Hierapolis was easily accessible to three more empires in addition to the Pergamenes. (Sorry, I didn’t keep up with all the details. I cancel the test to avoid embarrassing myself.) The city quickly became the pleasure center for all four empires. They are the only city in the area with not one but two theaters. They had plenty of opportunities to get drunk, gamble, take baths, and visit brothels.

Today, countless tourists walked through oppressive sun and heat to wet their feet in the stream, or swim in the pool,which still provides healing to countless sick people sharing their germs and viruses with each other. Danita decided to walk in the stream. Here’s a pic of the stream.

There’s a big advantage to viewing a museum of ancient history with an archeologist guide. The placards, books, and other museum literature will show you pictures, dates, and physical characteristics of the objects on display. An archeologist will explain how this applies to the residents — how they lived, where they lived, what they believed, etc. — plus how and why these things changed over time. The latter is more interesting, but takes some time to discuss. Here are a few interesting quick takes.

Shortly after pottery was invented, people of the area started placing their dead in large pots and burying the pots underground. The buried only the bones. When additional family members died, they opened the pots and added the newly departed. It wasn’t uncommon for a pot to hold the remains of seven people.

The two small bottles hold perfume. The fancy decoration of the pots acted as a trademark. It made the perfume popular throughout the larger area of the time, all the way to Egypt and beyoned.

The most artistic pots slowly shifted from Antalya to Greece. Greece made the fabulous pot on the left. Then suddenly, they lost the ability to make those pots. They switched to the black puts on the right. Nobody knows why.

The green color in these pots comes from lead. They knew that lead was poisonous, but they warmed their wine in these poisonous pots anyway. Apparently, they liked the color.

We have the afternoon off today. We resume our ride in the morning. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

First the important news. Maia was born yesterday about 11:00. Her stats are 7 lb 13 oz, 20.5 in. Everybody is doing well. Jul is up there helping out until we get home. We can’t wait to meet her in person.

Today we finished driving to Antalya. It’s a lot of driving. We had only a few stops to break up the drive. Our first stop was a bathroom break. This was an interesting stop because they had a playground. Danita and I took a ride on the merry-go-round. We were soon going so fast we had problems staying in the seats.

We crossed the Taurus mountains. If you drive across the Appalachian mountains, you see roughly the same land on both sides. Not so in Turkey. The land, fauna, crops, climate, and wild animals are completely different. The mountains are steep with winding roads. They are much rockier than the Appalachian mountains. Our lunch was at a road side stand. We had filo dough stuffed with cheese and spinach. This is a little bit like Greek pies. Women had three hot tables and prepared or lunch while we watched.

We also stopped at the Aspendos theater. This was built in the second century AD. It is the only complete ancient theater, including the entire original back stage building. It’s used quite actively today. People sit on the original Roman stones. Bring your own cushion, or rent one when you arrive. I’m not including a pic the pic would look exactly like dozens of other theaters.

Finally w arrived at our hotel in Antalya. This is a very high class hotel with views of the Mediterranean. They offer a buffet for both dinner and breakfast. The number of options for dinner and desert are overwhelming. Here’s the view from our room.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

How do you know you’re on the silk road? From the smell of the camels, of course. There are no camels in Turkey today, except for some tourist attractions that want to sell camel rides. Back in the day, there wasn’t one silk road, but many. They all ran from China to Constantinople. They went through different countries. Countries competed with each other to get the traffic and trade from the merchants. In 1229, the king of Turkiye built this camel hotel, formally known as the Sultanhan Caravansaray. They offered food, baths, and stalls to store your goods and rest your animals, all free. He built similar facilities every 20 KM, all the way to Constantinople.

The building was divided into an open air area in the front for use in the summer, and an enclosed area in the back to use when it was cold. Here’s a pic of the winter area. The height of the ceiling and size of the rooms emphasize the majesty and importance of the king. The rugs are part of an art exhibit. They wouldn’t have been there in the 1200s. If you are interested, there are a few more pics on the web site.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Oops. I made a mistake. Cappadocia is at number 5 on the travel map (not 4, which is the Hittite capitol). It’s a good thing I’m not the tour guide.

The highlight of the day was watching a Sema ceremony (Whirling Dervishes). The poet and teacher Rumi made this part of the Sufi religion. I don’t understand very much of the ceremony, but the sincerity of the dancers was obvious. They don’t allow pictures during the ceremony, but after the ceremony three men returned to let us get our pics.

The other highlight was a visit to a pottery company. The company we visited is a 200-year-old family business. One of the men in the family explained the process. He told the story that trained to be a potter. After an appropriate apprenticeship, he was tested by making an object. He said that after his test, his father told him to learn English so he could help sell. Most of what they make is white clay artistic pieces. The beauty of these pieces is breathtaking (as is the price). We purchased a wall tile made by student potters, which is much closer to our budget. You can see some pictures of impressive people doing their work on the website.

In case two major attractions is not enough, we also visited an underground city. Earlier we saw cave homes, some of which were lived in by Christians hiding from Roman persecution. When that proved to be an ineffective hiding spot, early Christians built elaborate underground cities. These had anywhere from 5 to over 20 levels. They had rooms for animals, food and water storage, and bedrooms for the occupants. I made it to the first room, took one picture, and let Danita complete the tour.

We also stopped to see several unique rock formations, including the famous Angel Chimneys and a Hittite warrior. Several pictures are on the website for those who are interested.

We also stopped to see several unique rock formations, including the famous Angel Chimneys and a Hittite warrior. Several pictures are on the website for those who are interested.