Post by dilworth on Jun 22, 2014 13:28:36 GMT -6
Dil's Trip to Turkey
Don't do anything stupid or disrespectful with these pics pls
I was told that some people would like to see and hear about my trip. Here we go.
Don't do anything stupid or disrespectful with these pics pls
I was told that some people would like to see and hear about my trip. Here we go.
Why did I go??
- My school has an optional May term. The courses in this term are specific to the May term. Most of them are trips abroad or away in the states. There were trips to New Zealand, Italy, England, Arizona, California, and a few others. It's a great opportunity to experience a different culture for a few weeks while you're still in college before your possibly tied down with a job and/or family. My trip included 20 students and 2 professors. It was four weeks long.
Why Turkey??
- I'm a Religion and Health Sciences double major with a minor in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies (liberal arts school so it's easier to do multiple things). Turkey has a ton of Christian, Muslim, Greek, and Roman history. All of these fall in line with my Religion major and my Ancient Greek and Roman Studies minor. Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) was the capitol of the Roman empire for a few hundred years. The official religion of the Roman empire was Christianity for a time period. The empire fell to a Muslim dominant empire which is why they're a Muslim nation now. I'm not sure how familiar you are with Biblical information but most of the books in the New Testament are letters written by Paul to specific cities or churches. Many of these cities or churches are in Turkey (Ephesus, Galatia, Colossae) and all seven of the of letters in Revelation were to churches in Turkey. The Apostle John lived there. Mary the mother of Jesus lived there. All in all, tons of Christian history, tons of Muslim history, tons of Greek and Roman influence. I'm interested in all that jazz.
What did I do??
- I was there for four weeks. I went to Istanbul, Iznic, Izmir, Cappadocia, Ephesus, Colossae, Bodrum, and I sailed around the Aegean for four days. I won't talk about all of these places due to length. Here are some highlights:
This is the Blue Mosque. It's one of the largest mosques in the world. It's the most impressive building I've every seen from the outside. It was built in the 17th century and it's still a practicing mosque today.
It looks like this on the inside
This is Hagia Sophia. It was built in the 7th century as church and converted into a mosque in the 15th century I think. Now it's a museum. It's massive and right next to the Blue Mosque.
This is a church called Hagia Irene. It's all stone with only a single cross which is very different from every other church/mosque in the city that is decked out with paintings/gold/things. It's cold and only uses natural light from windows. I loved it.
These are some baller ancient floors
This is just a cool roof structure overlooking the sea
This is a painting on the inside of a dome of a church. It's Jesus in the center surrounded by popular Old Testament figures. Interesting note: the teenage boy directly below Jesus is Abel, the brother of Cain. Cain killed Abel to get his inheritance from their dad. All of the men are depicted as they died (really old) so that's why Cain is much younger. Also all of the names are written in Greek which I've learned with my minor so I especially like this one.
We then went to Cappadocia. This place looks like another planet. Crazy rock formations and landscapes. It was unreal. People carved homes inside of rocks and live there. There are entire rock home communities.
This is a castle carved into a rock. One of the coolest things I've ever seen.
This is the disco at our hotel. It was filled with Turkish moms and their children.
This is a church carved into the side of a canyon
And another
This is a 12th century Christian monastery that was carved into a valley wall
This place is called Love Valley. It's filled with hundreds of giant rock penises that were naturally created due to wind and rain.
We found some puppies on a trail
This is an underground city that was carved by Christians to avoid persecution. This thing is huge. So many different passageways and rooms. There are traps all over the place in case of invasion. It reminded me of The Goonies.
I took a hot air balloon ride to watch the sunrise
This is a huge theater at Hierapolis on the side of a mountain. This Muslim lady posed for me
This is an ancient Greek stadium. Supposedly it held 30,000 people. Looks more like 20,000 to me. They held chariot races and gladiator fights here. It looks exactly like a football stadium.
Ancient public bathroom
This is the theater at Ephesus. Paul wrote the New Testament letter "Ephesians" to the church at this city. This thing holds 23,000 people.
This is the tomb of the Apostle John: the author of the Gospel of John and Revelation.
lol
Like I said, this isn't everything I did but it's some of the highlights. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them as best as I can.
-Dil
- My school has an optional May term. The courses in this term are specific to the May term. Most of them are trips abroad or away in the states. There were trips to New Zealand, Italy, England, Arizona, California, and a few others. It's a great opportunity to experience a different culture for a few weeks while you're still in college before your possibly tied down with a job and/or family. My trip included 20 students and 2 professors. It was four weeks long.
Why Turkey??
- I'm a Religion and Health Sciences double major with a minor in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies (liberal arts school so it's easier to do multiple things). Turkey has a ton of Christian, Muslim, Greek, and Roman history. All of these fall in line with my Religion major and my Ancient Greek and Roman Studies minor. Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) was the capitol of the Roman empire for a few hundred years. The official religion of the Roman empire was Christianity for a time period. The empire fell to a Muslim dominant empire which is why they're a Muslim nation now. I'm not sure how familiar you are with Biblical information but most of the books in the New Testament are letters written by Paul to specific cities or churches. Many of these cities or churches are in Turkey (Ephesus, Galatia, Colossae) and all seven of the of letters in Revelation were to churches in Turkey. The Apostle John lived there. Mary the mother of Jesus lived there. All in all, tons of Christian history, tons of Muslim history, tons of Greek and Roman influence. I'm interested in all that jazz.
What did I do??
- I was there for four weeks. I went to Istanbul, Iznic, Izmir, Cappadocia, Ephesus, Colossae, Bodrum, and I sailed around the Aegean for four days. I won't talk about all of these places due to length. Here are some highlights:
This is the Blue Mosque. It's one of the largest mosques in the world. It's the most impressive building I've every seen from the outside. It was built in the 17th century and it's still a practicing mosque today.
It looks like this on the inside
This is Hagia Sophia. It was built in the 7th century as church and converted into a mosque in the 15th century I think. Now it's a museum. It's massive and right next to the Blue Mosque.
This is a church called Hagia Irene. It's all stone with only a single cross which is very different from every other church/mosque in the city that is decked out with paintings/gold/things. It's cold and only uses natural light from windows. I loved it.
These are some baller ancient floors
This is just a cool roof structure overlooking the sea
This is a painting on the inside of a dome of a church. It's Jesus in the center surrounded by popular Old Testament figures. Interesting note: the teenage boy directly below Jesus is Abel, the brother of Cain. Cain killed Abel to get his inheritance from their dad. All of the men are depicted as they died (really old) so that's why Cain is much younger. Also all of the names are written in Greek which I've learned with my minor so I especially like this one.
We then went to Cappadocia. This place looks like another planet. Crazy rock formations and landscapes. It was unreal. People carved homes inside of rocks and live there. There are entire rock home communities.
This is a castle carved into a rock. One of the coolest things I've ever seen.
This is the disco at our hotel. It was filled with Turkish moms and their children.
This is a church carved into the side of a canyon
And another
This is a 12th century Christian monastery that was carved into a valley wall
This place is called Love Valley. It's filled with hundreds of giant rock penises that were naturally created due to wind and rain.
We found some puppies on a trail
This is an underground city that was carved by Christians to avoid persecution. This thing is huge. So many different passageways and rooms. There are traps all over the place in case of invasion. It reminded me of The Goonies.
I took a hot air balloon ride to watch the sunrise
This is a huge theater at Hierapolis on the side of a mountain. This Muslim lady posed for me
This is an ancient Greek stadium. Supposedly it held 30,000 people. Looks more like 20,000 to me. They held chariot races and gladiator fights here. It looks exactly like a football stadium.
Ancient public bathroom
This is the theater at Ephesus. Paul wrote the New Testament letter "Ephesians" to the church at this city. This thing holds 23,000 people.
This is the tomb of the Apostle John: the author of the Gospel of John and Revelation.
lol
Like I said, this isn't everything I did but it's some of the highlights. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them as best as I can.
-Dil
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