There is so much to share that we fear it isn't possible to do justice in these three chapters. But, we'll give it a go.
Being interested in early church history and the development of the Christian church in Turkey, we certainly looked forward with anticipation to traveling around this most interesting country. Once again, we were blessed with generally good weather, though it got quite cold in places. Our fellow travelers were most enjoyable people coming from a variety of backgrounds and countries. This all added to a great fortnight of sightseeing and learning about this part of the world.
INSTANBUL - our first port of call
The views from our hotel were quite outstanding:
There is much to see in Instanbul and we had 'Buckley's hope' of seeing it all. A Turkish cup of tea went down really well, and we were very much part of the Instanbul atmosphere
The waiting rooms in the ferry terminals were also a different experience. All quite relaxed, though not all our Turkey experience was like that!
Fishing off the bridge was something else again. One wouldn't attempt to count the number of lines hung in the water, but we did wonder about what was caught and whether it was healthy!
Our harbour cruises allowed us to see Instanbul from the waters of the Bosporus that separates Europe from Asia. It was most relaxing!
That Instanbul is a centre of communication can be best judged by the number of transmission towers we saw on top of this mountain:
Leaving Instanbul we drove to Iznik, known as Nicea ages ago, and there visited the remains of the Church of St Sophia, which was the site of the seventh Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church (organised by Emperor Constantine in 325 AD). It was in this church that the Nicene Creed was first developed.
We arrived in Bursa that evening and were greeted the following morning with the following view from our hotel window:
A busy day awaited us as we embarked on the journey to the capital - Ankara. On the way we visited the Green Mosque and the Green Mausoleum of Sultan Celebi Mehmet who died in 1421. As we said earlier, it was a new cultural experience, particularly when we also observed the coffin of the Sultan's wet-nurse!
Our guide Pasha explaining 'all' to us:
The Sultan's tomb:
Certainly, what was different was the old village of Cumalikizik - a national heritage site. Our diary notes that some buildings are just ruins, others need a lot of maintenance. We were told that no restoration was allowed. That being the case, the village doesn't have much time left.
Just look at the 'kitchen' which joins these two structures!
Before arriving in Ankara, we visited the site of Gordion where there was a museum dedicated to the Phrygian King Midas.
This included his burial mound. Quite fascinating!
Ankara - the capital. A visit to the Museum and the Mausoleum of Ataturk was very interesting. Much memorabilia from the war exploits over the past century, including Gallipolli. The Turkish people greatly admire Ataturk and that was very evident during this visit:
We were fascinated by our visit to the Hittite Museum in Ankara. There was much to see and far too much to absorb. What stood out was the emphasis on the mother goddess, a deity we came across several more times.
We cannot resist posting a few extra photos of the exhibits in this museum. They brought home the huge emphasis on people's need to worship images:
All of this is now replaced by Islam. While Turkey is not as strict as other Muslim countries, there is a high regard for Islam and it is practiced everywhere. We did not experience the fanatical emphasis so evident in other middle-east countries. What was good to see was the care of art work that is part of Islam:
Next....Cappadocia, the real surprise for us on this tour. WAIT FOR IT!
1 comment:
hmm, i'm not so sure about that picture of the statue and grandma behind it... :-)
Post a Comment