April 17, 2010 (Saturday)

Day Off. Today, we are giving ourselves permission to do just whatever we want to do. For the first time on the trip, on our eighteenth day, we finally have taken ourselves offline from any official schedule. Jerry and I both realized that after pushing so hard from dawn to dusk for weeks now, we were ready to crash physically and genuinely needed to take a day to catch our breath. We are up around 7 am or so. This Hotel Tripoli is okay, but the receptionist is not very friendly or attentive. Yesterday, I stood at the front desk for several minutes while a lady and man behind the desk argued about something and completely ignored me! I shall complete their customer satisfaction survey, no doubt!!

Anyway, we first go to the car and figure out how to get the “message” on the blinking warning light on the dash to toggle off in order to get kilometers to show again. We find out that the red light thankfully goes off once the car is cranked. We hope to get car assistance in Selçuk (the modern city next to the ancient site of Ephesus), our next major stay-over after visiting the site of Aphrodisias on the way. We have contacts with Janet Crisler and the Crisler Institute in Selçuk if needed; at least there’ll be someone who speaks our language to help us with the car. After checking on the car, I notice the hotel has a pigeon roost in its side yard, so I get a picture with my iPhone.

WiFi Searching. Our Hotel Tripoli, though brand new, has no WiFi. We have not communicated home with anyone for a while, so really need to make contact. We decide to chance a quick run over to the Colossae Thermal Hotel where we had stayed the night before to try to use their lobby WiFi. Unfortunately, the WiFi in the Colossae Thermal lobby doesn’t work for some reason this morning—dang it! After our vain attempt to get WiFi at Colossae Thermal, we head back to our Hotel Tripoli to catch breakfast. Jerry fakes a pose anticipating a dip later this afternoon.

Pamukkale Shopping. After breakfast, we are off to downtown Pamukkale to do a little shopping. The modern resort town of Pamukkale is right at the bottom of the hill of the ancient site of Hierapolis. We also continue to look for an Internet café. I bought some little zip cases for the Tapestry ladies—they’re kinda cute. Didn’t find anything else of interest in the little storefronts along the main drag, so we asked about an Internet café. We get directions to a place that some suppose might have Internet. When we get there, however, the place is closed.

Judy’s Hotel. We spot a small hotel nearby that seems to be open and go inside. We inquire about any Internet access in the area. Lo and behold, we are told we can use their WiFi! We then are introduced to the hotel proprietor. Her name is Judy. She is a very nice lady. Judy gave us tea and the password for her hotel WiFi. We’re in business now.

I send email to Richard Johnson to let him know Jerry found the water tower pipes at Laodicea. We do a little Twitter and Facebook posting. Had a pleasant visit with Judy. She’s very nice and loves Apple computers, so conversation easily ensues. She tells us of woes with Korean hotel guests who want to bargain on everything down to the nub to the point she basically barely breaks even with any Korean group and really does not like to see them coming. She has owned the hotel for 2 years. She bought the establishment from a family that was socially “shamed” and had to leave town as a result. We are getting the distinct impression this honor/shame society is serious business.

Judy tells us of a village up the road called Karahayit not too far past the Colossae Thermal Hotel and says the little town is worth a visit. [She says that shopping is better there, so Jean is persuaded right away to make an unscheduled visit, and I realize suddenly that now, I am just tagging along. Tables are turned. Ha!—Jerry] So off we go.

Karahayit Visit. The little village to which Judy had directed us has the weirdest thermal spring coming up out of the ground in the center of the road. We take pictures. The village has a brand new hotel called the Grand Marden that looks very nice. We immediately happen upon an Internet café on the main drag—goody—we’re in business. We do email, Jerry checks his favorite forums, DPReview, Macworld, MacLife, and iLounge sites. I check my email—all this for less than $2. After using the Internet, we walk up the main street and smell some wonderful chicken. We stop and eat lunch, since the time is about 1 pm now. After lunch we walk on up the street and look at some shops. There’s a nice glass shop, but we can’t find anything we might be interested in. We then return back to the car to ride through the rest of village, but we discover there’s not much else to see. The town is extremely dusty, much like the rest of Turkey. Whenever I will think of Turkey in the future, I always will feel the dust flying and remember the red poppies popping.

Thermal Pool. After finishing the side trip to the little town the Pamukkale hotel proprietor, Judy, had recommended we visit, we head back to our hotel. I wash out a pair of pants, shirt, etc. for Jerry. I hang them on the balcony to dry—they’ll be wrinkled but at least the pants will still be beige and not yellow!

Jerry has on his new swimsuit as if to go to the thermal pool, but he has fallen asleep with his ipod (iPhone) playing in his earphones. He has worked so hard. He really needs the rest. I’m glad he finally allowed himself the luxury of collapsing in exhaustion. He’ll be taking a dip later in the thermal pool.

Jerry arouses from his little afternoon nap, and around 4:30 we are headed to the thermal pool that is fed by the mineral waters of Hierapolis. Jerry took a swim. He said the water was wonderfully warm. I took some pics and a movie of him in a rare moment of purely relaxing on this trip. After 30 minutes, Jerry got out of the thermal pool, and we headed to the big pool outside. That water was shockingly cold! Jerry took a while to get in and swim. I took some more pics with the cliffs of Pamukkale (ancient Hierapolis) in the background.

Pamukkale Dinner. We head back to our room to clean up. We go into Pamukkale back to Judy’s place for dinner. (This is the same lady who had helped us earlier in the day, serving us tea and allowing us to use her hotel WiFi and giving us a recommendation to visit Karahayit on up the road.) We eat on Judy’s restaurant balcony upstairs and can see Pamukkale in the distance. While we were sitting there, we saw people rolling their bags down the street (“see them bag rollers rolling they bags”). We used Judy’s WiFi connection again to call some folks, including Richard Johnson (to thank him for helping find the water tower at Laodicea), our godchild, Lauren (it’s prom night for her, and she and her mother, Donna, were shopping for earrings), Mother, my brother-in-law, Johnny Martin (to check on this injured back falling off the roof of the house), my sister, Janice, and niece Tonya, Pops Stevens (left message), and John Crider (left message).

CSI Programming. After a wonderful dinner with our beautiful balcony view of Pamukkale, we head back to our hotel and just relax. We review plans for the next day when we will go to Aphrodisias, and then on to Selçuk (Ephesus) and Janet’s place at the Crisler Library. [Aphrodisias is a classical Greek site that in the Roman period was favored highly by Rome due to social connections between the elite of Aphrodisias and the imperial house in Rome. As a faithful client of Rome, Aphrodisias benefited from this strong patronage system that endowed Aphrodisias with many public works, statuary, temples, and other public construction. I hope to learn much about the nature and function of Roman imperial propaganda in the Roman Empire through visiting Aphrodisias, as well as illustrations of Roman values.—Jerry]

We actually find an American cable program on TV that is not dubbed into Turkish—an episode of CSI—in original English—our first television English in days!!! That was great! And we are not even CSI fans.

For a video of the Pamukkale and Karahayit action today:

April 16, 2010 (Friday)

Hierapolis. Got breakfast at about 8 am and then checked out of our hotel and headed to Hierapolis. The ancient site of Hierapolis is actually right up the hill from the resort town of Pamukkale.

The roads and entrance to the site are changed since we last were here in 2002. The entrance, large parking lot, and ticket booth complex are now a long way from the actual site remains and museum. You have to walk a long way uphill to get to the upper city and theater (probably 15–20 minutes).

The uphill trek is through the western necropolis area. A necropolis is a city’s ancient burial grounds. Those of Hierapolis are alongside the hill leading up to the city. Last time we were here we were able to drive through this area on up to the city. Now, we have to walk. The necropolis is a fascinating and huge burial area that covers acres of ground with monumental tombs, crypts, monuments, and sarcophagi everywhere. Along the way, Jerry takes a few pictures, but he plans to explore more on the way back down after we finish the Hierapolis site and museum. The long walk is hot and tiring, but spring wild flowers are in abundance, so the view is full of color.

We finally get up the hill to the ancient city. The gates to the city’s main avenue, called Frontius Street, are dated to the time of Domitian, similar to Laodicea’s Syrian Gate leading to Syria Street. Jerry says this gate construction indicates how active was the imperial presence in Asia Minor, especially the Flavian dynasty, at the time the book of Revelation was written. Grand arches into the basilica bathhouse complex also date to the time of Domitian.

Hierapolis Theater. Unfortunately, even when we get to the upper city and the theater itself, we discover you no longer can enter the theater at the bottom; the only entrance is at the tiptop on the backside up the hill! Another hill to climb. Ugh. Jerry goes ahead not to miss the right angle of the rising morning sun for his theater shots, and I follow behind, hiking up slowly. Once up there, I find Jerry and take pictures, and we do another “talking head” movie for Jerry’s classroom. This theater shows the back wall structure, called the skene, in pretty good condition, which is rare. (That’s why the theater at Aspendos on the southern coast is spectacular.) You can see how beautifully the skene was adorned with inscriptions, carving, reliefs, and statuary. Jerry was right. The theater is really perfect in the early morning light.

Hierapolis Museum. After getting the morning theater shots Jerry had wanted ever since our last visit to Hierapolis, we then head to the museum that we did not know was here in our first visit; unfortunately, this destination is another long walk from the top of the theater. The museum is larger than we thought. They have used three of the vaulted, basilica-style rooms that are part of the Roman bathhouse complex to develop three “salons,” or exhibit spaces.

Inside the museum, Jerry appreciated an artist’s depiction of the ancient city, which showed well how the city perched on the edge of the mineral cliffs with its theater right in the middle of the city. They had the typical displays from various time periods of pottery, bowls, lamps, and instruments. The coin display had quite a number of examples. Jerry, however, was disappointed. None of the coins were dated or labeled in any way. Without such information, he said, a coin display is practically worthless.

One Roman sarcophagus was of interest, because the chamber was found in nearby Laodicea from late 2nd century or early 3rd century A.D. The sarcophagus was for a husband and wife. Reliefs on the side depicted the life of the individual, education, and heroic scenes representing social status and honor.

Another Roman sarcophagus was a nice find, Jerry said, since the crypt dated all the way back to the time of Claudius (A.D. 41–54) in the first century, a rare find in this state of preservation, and is from Hierapolis. (Claudius was the emperor during the time of the Apostle Paul’s first and second missionary journeys.) The images of the reliefs on the partially-preserved sides of the sarcophagus are related to the bravery of an administrator of Hierapolis extolling him as if he were a god.

The remains of a colossal statue of Hadrian got Jerry’s attention. Hadrian was the Roman emperor (117–138) who put down the last Jewish revolt under the messianic pretender Simon Bar Kockba. Jerry documented Roman gladiator combat scenes depicted on reliefs on grave stele. We finish the museum in a heated rush, barely finishing as they started closing up for lunch.

Leaving the museum, Jerry likes the blooming violet trees in the courtyard area and grabs a quick picture of me underneath one. We then get our routine shot in front of the museum entrance.

Mineral Springs. The museum is near the famous thermal pools of Hierapolis at the top edge of the cliff over which the waters pour to create the white cliffs that can be seen easily from Laodicea down in the Lycus valley. We have viewed them before, but we walk over to visit them again and look out over the valley to see Laodicea in the distance. The pools are still impressive.

We make the long walk down the hillside back to the parking area. At least this time, the walk is downhill. Jerry takes more pictures of the necropolis remains. He seems especially interested in gladiator indications in the burial artifacts. Finally back at the ticket area at the bottom of the hill, we get a sandwich and an ice cream to cool us down a bit. After our late lunch at the rest area and café next to the parking area, we get back to the car to find our new hotel for the night.

Hotel Tripolis. Our new accommodations are at Hotel Tripolis, where we’ll stay the next two nights. The hotel is new construction with pretty grounds. The room is large with sort of a Hampton Inn look. We send laundry out for washing. Jerry decides he has just enough time before the Laodicea site closes for the day to search for the water pipes one more time. I stay behind at the hotel to rest and catch up on the journal. So, here we are. Tomorrow is our first rest/shopping day after 17 days of furious travel, work, and research! Looking forward to that!

Laodicea Return. Jerry returned from Laodicea—successful! He found the pipes! The story is really funny. Jerry had searched and searched again, and still saw nothing like what he had seen in the picture that was his mental landmark. The pipes were coming up straight out of the ground in the picture. He had scoured the ground inch by inch in exactly the spot he knew Richard’s emailed Google map had indicated. His heart was sinking. He could not believe he could not find the pipes and thought he would fail again. He was exasperated, indeed, desperate. He knew the archeological site was going to be closing for the day soon.

“And now, the rest of the story . . .” He told me that I would not believe what happened to cause him to find the pipes. He said that, in a really comical way, he found the pipes just like the Spaniard Inigo Montoya in the movie, “Princess Bride,” found the spot that would lead to the “man in black” with his sword pointed up to tell direction like a divining rod.

In like fashion, in his desperation, Jerry said he literally lifted his hands up to God, really frustrated, saying, “please help me find . . . ,” and in the moment he was saying the words and turning his head upwards to heaven, there the pipes were right above him staring happily back down at him! They were not coming from below out of the ground as he thought from the picture he had seen, but instead from above, coming down out of a water tower! What looked like pipes coming up out of the ground in the picture he had seen was really an inverted orientation of the camera looking straight up into the sky, but with no sky visible in the close focus of the picture to give an indication that the camera was pointed directly up into the sky! That’s why he missed them yesterday. He was looking down all the time, not up! So funny. A happy ending to a desperate search.

He took many pictures, so his trip back for one more try late this afternoon was worth it. The terracotta pipes beautifully show the lime deposit buildup of the strong mineral water that closed off the flow of water eventually, forcing the constant replacement of the pipes over time. This mineral water of Laodicea features in a statement of Jesus in Rev. 3:16.

More Humor. Oh, and there’s more. Our laundry returns to our room, washed, but not ironed and folded—kind of damp dry, and Jerry now has a pair of pale yellow pants that used to be beige. I had no idea what they did to a beige pair of pants to turn them pale yellow; but, they were cheap and are still wearable. He’ll have an interesting “change of wardrobe.” J

Supper Search. For a change of cuisine for supper, we thought to drive into the modern town of Pamukkale, which is right next to the ancient site of Hierapolis and not far from the hotel, to investigate whether we had a local option for a restaurant besides the hotel. Since most of what we saw on the main strip was just “tourist” style with trinket shops and quick-stop stores, we end up back at the hotel. We have the hotel buffet with the many German tour groups that arrived late this afternoon, turning the place into a beehive.

Car Trouble? As we parked our rental car when we got back to the hotel in our search for supper, Jerry discovers we now have yet another car problem, a red blinking light on the dash—dang! We take the Turkish car manual into our room and try to figure out what the blinking icon on the dash means by trying to connect the icon shape with any descriptions about that image in the manual. We decide we think the blinking light means the car is due for scheduled service (oil change, etc.) and is just a reminder. We hope that the light will just blink for a set period of time to remind the car owner that the car needs regularly scheduled maintenance, and then voluntarily turn off. To bed­—fairly decent sleep.

For a video of the Hierapolis and Laodicea action today:

April 15, 2010 (Thursday)

Side. Up early and out of here! In the rush packing, Jerry accidently knocks my camera off the low bed, and it hits the stone floor, but not too hard, and seems to be OK. We put Side in our rearview mirror as fast as we can. Off to Denizli, the major city in a valley that is close to the ancient tel of Colossae, which has never been excavated. No matter to my Pauline scholar. He just wants to walk the mound. So, we are off to find Colossae. The Garmin is somewhat helpful in getting us out of Side, and then we can follow highway signs. Side to Denizli is a pretty long ride.

Denizli. Once we get to Denizli, we get gas, use the bathroom, and get the car washed at a BP station. While we’re in line getting the car washed, they bring us hot tea. The Turks are so hospitable. Once done refueling, we’re off to find Colossae, just outside of Denizli, using our Google Earth printout from our research in getting ready for the trip. We know we are close to our destination for the day, Colossae, but we are haunted by the memories of looking for hours and hours the last time we were in this area in 2002 and never finding the site. Of course, back then, highways were under road improvements, and construction had signs down. We also did not have Google Earth satellite photos.

De-ja-vu? We drive out of Denizli on the main highway east. We had calculated how far to our turnoff from the main highway from Google satellite images. We felt like we had gone far enough down the highway, but we had seen no sign again! We start getting an uneasy feeling. Just then, I recognized a building from a Google Earth satellite picture Jerry had collected from his research. Since the Google Earth image was an aerial shot directly overhead, and we were on the ground at a totally different visual perspective, Jerry thought my recognizing the building was pretty incredible. In any case, that split-second decision to tell Jerry we needed to turn back immediately because I thought we had passed the turnoff saved us completely missing our turn and never finding Colossae—again!

Discovery! So we make a U-turn and go back. Voila! There is a small sign to Colossae (2 km) that we missed, and, sure enough, a little way down that road, we make a hard right turn, go down that road a little distance, and then, rising up before us is the tel! The map below offers the GPS coordinates of the site.

If you like, you can put these coordinates into your Google Maps search box in your browser, and you can get even more detailed information about the Colossae tel: 37.78628, 29.2606.

Jerry is very excited. He has waited eight years to get back to Turkey to find the tel of Colossae that we never could find in our first trip, and he was so disappointed and frustrated, because we knew then that we were really close but just could not find the spot. And we almost missed the site again! However, we did discover one bad development right as we were approaching the tel of Colossae.

Camera Trouble. We stop the car to take a distance shot before going up to the tel. I take out my trusty little camera and take a photo, and my camera freezes. We cannot fix it. Jerry does everything he knows to do, including taking out the battery, rebooting, and other actions. Nothing worked. It fell off the bed at that horrible little hotel this morning, and that evidently did her in. So now, I have no camera, except my cell phone. Jerry is really distressed, since he is sure he is responsible. He feels terrible. I have been the main one getting pictures of him while he takes pictures of everything else. Oh well. We just have to press on. Lord knows what Jerry would do if his camera went on the blink! That would be disaster for his research funded by the Lilly Foundation and Ola Farmer Lenaz grants.

Colossae. We go to the tel, which has a guard/keeper on site, but no charge is required, so we climb on up. Jerry wonders about a cave-like cut into the wall on the way up the side of the tel and discovers remnants of architectural blocks just lying exposed on the surface of the tel. At the top of the tel he points out the mountains nearby that provided the fresh, cool, snowmelt water for the city. We could see the snow at the upper levels. Jerry goes all around the tel while I entertain myself looking at pottery shards and marble pieces that are everywhere. We do a “talking head” movie for Jerry’s classroom lectures and finally take our leave of the site.

We have now seen the tel of Colossae, which so totally eluded us 8 years ago! Jerry is on top of the world for success this time around. He says he gives all credit to his eagle-eye, “very observant” wife for barely catching in a split second in her peripheral vision the corner of a building she recognized from Google overhead satellite shots where we needed to turn off the main highway just as we passed by. [“You go, girl! Yeah!”—Jerry]

Laodicea. After finishing our site visit of the Colossae tel, we drive back toward the modern city of Denizli. The city of Denizli is much improved over just eight years ago: new roads, new signs, big gas stations, etc. The site of Laodicea is right on the outskirts of Denizli to the north. The signs marking the site are very clear and easy to find, unlike Colossae.

The GPS coordinates of Laodicea are given in the map below. Click the minus sign at the top left of the map to zoom out a little if the gold site maker is not visible.

Current Excavation. Laodicea is being excavated now, which is wonderful. The site has so changed since we were here! About all we could see were surface remains. In fact, so much had changed, we have a hard time at first getting oriented. The main street has been established and a few columns erected, etc. Excavators are working while we’re there. The Syrian Gate, one of the main entrances into ancient Laodicea, has little left of its former glory. The gate was meaningful for Jerry due to its construction under the time of Domitian, the Roman emperor most likely surrounding the historical context of the book of Revelation. The gate led to Syria Street, Laodicea’s main avenue, that was beautified by Domitian. In other words, Domitian clearly was accepted by the leaders and population of Laodicea as their patron to whom they formally owed their political and religious allegiance as his obedient and grateful clients.

With work going on currently, the site is much more organized, with some areas identified by signs and descriptions. Jerry is pleased to find the bouleterion (“council assembly hall”), but the angle of the ground does not provide a good shot. He wished he had a helicopter (next grant, buddy boy!) This type assembly hall has semicircular, inclined seating on the pattern of theater seating in which the rulers and noblemen of the city discussed, debated, and voted on laws, rules, and regulations for Laodicea.

With more signage on the site, Jerry also is pleased to find the location of the various bathhouses that serviced the population of Laodicea. Baths were an important ingredient to a Roman city, the Facebook of Roman social life, and they generally are found almost anywhere Rome went, including Bath, England, which is actually the site of the ancient Roman baths near London. Some of these bath areas on the site of Laodicea are identified, but not yet excavated, such as the east bathhouse complex in the first picture below.

Jerry also found the southern bathhouse complex, which was a little more visible above ground. Jerry was interested in the water system of Laodicea because of a connection to a statement in the Letter of Laodicea in the book of Revelation.

From Laodicea’s western theater the white cliffs of the related ancient city of Hierapolis are easily visible. The white cliffs are limestone deposits from evaporating water of the hot mineral springs flowing over a cliff. Ancient Hierapolis is like our Hot Springs, Arkansas. The warm, mineral water baths were popular for their supposed medicinal effect, and Romans used them for many ailments. (The modern name of the town is Pammukale, which, roughly translated, means, “Snow Palace.” Even today Pammukale is a very popular resort area.)

We were visiting Turkey during early spring. The weather can be unpredictable because of weather systems bringing spring rains. However, we counted ourselves so fortunate that most of our touring days, with only two major exceptions toward the beginning and at the end, were bright and sunny. In the bright sunshine we had most of the time, the poppies were dazzling. I do so love the red poppies of Turkey. They grow wild everywhere, sometimes creating entire carpets of red along small valleys off the roadside. Laodicea was full of poppies popping up everywhere. Delightful.

Water Pipes. What archeologists call “Terminal 1” of the water supply system at Laodicea has some exposed Roman terracotta water pipes of a water terminal station for Laodicea near the stadium complex on the far west side of the site. Jerry’s former student and professor at East Texas Baptist University, Richard Johnson, had gotten a picture of the pipes, and Jerry wanted a picture too. The pipes would help illustrate well a verse in one of Revelation’s Seven Letters. So Jerry hiked off to find the pipes.I waited a long time in some shade I found not far from the Syrian Gate entrance and worked on our photo database. Jerry finally comes back around, hot and exhausted, but he did not find the pipes. Bummer! He’s disappointed not to get his picture, but the afternoon, though pretty hot in the direct sun, was gorgeous, and Jerry had seen so much more than the first time we visited the site in 2002. He was so glad to see the excavation work going on. Jerry did see this terracotta waterline archeologists had discovered. These are the waterlines that the water terminal he tried to find would supply.

Although the focus of this research trip is not on the wildlife of Turkey, Jerry was catching shots all the time of animals and critters of all kinds. He especially liked this one. He dubbed him, “Mr. Laodicean Lizard.”

Colossae Thermal Hotel. Leaving the site of Laodicea, we stop at a roadside market and get Jerry a big liter of water, since his hot hike for the water pipes had dehydrated him severely, even though he was drinking water along the way. We then go on down the road a few miles to the Colossea Thermal Hotel and check in. The Colossae Thermal is a great hotel where we stayed in 2002. We have a great room—a suite for the price of a double! Today is going to be a good day! We ate dinner buffet with tour groups that were there, and the food was delicious. After dinner we perused a shop and looked at some scarves. We find out that free wifi is available in the lobby.

Back in our room, Jerry called his friend Richard long distance using our Skype account to get the exact location of the pipes at Laodicea. Jerry asks him to email a map to us at my A&R email account that we can retrieve downstairs using the hotel lobby’s free wifi. Later we get an email from Richard with a Google map showing the exact location. Jerry is incredulous. He recognizes from Richard’s Google map that he actually was very close to the spot this afternoon but somehow just didn’t find the pipes. He is quite determined to go back tomorrow afternoon after we have finished touring the ancient site of Hierapolis to try again at nearby Laodicea strictly for the water pipes, if we have time. Jerry’s poor feet are so sore, so I massaged them with lotion for him. Happy feet are important on a trip like this.

Rental Redux. I decided to try again to follow up on reporting the car damage. I called Avis in Adana where we had rented the car and asked to speak to Neozi (pronounced ‘knee ozzie’), the guy who had helped us when we rented the car. Neozi wasn’t in, but I talked to another person who spoke decent English (yea). I told him the damage to the car was a definite scratch on the back door, but not like seriously dented in. He said everything was OK, that we could continue using the car, and we could just wait until the Istanbul airport where we were returning the car to deal with the damage. I pray God help us deal with the situation easily when we get to the airport in Istanbul. Off to bed, and slept pretty good, but I still woke up thinking about the car.

For a video of the Colossae and Laodicea action today: