While in Izmir we also visited the seven churches from Revelations. We had hired a bus and guide who would take us to each church and tell us a little more about them. We got extremely blessed and got the only Christian guide. This meant that we got a truly biblical view on each of the ruins and we were free to pray and read the bible at each location. Also our guide was blessed by getting to spend his time with other Christians and said we were a great encouragement. The Churches were spread out so most days we could only make it to two except for the last day when we saw three and then headed straight to our next destination Antalya. We started with Pergamum.
We had a great view of the village that lay at the foot of the ruins.
The
Amphitheater was always one of the coolest parts and usually they were well preserved.
Here our guide is telling us about the meaning of the symbols on this pillar. This ruin was also the site of a old hospital and it was known as one of the best places to come for healing. The pillar has a snake carved into it witch was part of the symbol of a hospital.
This was probably used in the hospital it was pretty comfortable.
Amphitheater
This is a healing tunnel which is one of the ways the hospital tried to cure people. The sick person would walk through the tunnel and doctors would stand above them and shout through holes in the roof. The would say things like you are well, you will not get sick again. I forget all what they would yell.
Here we have some people waiting to yell healing messages to us.
The rest of us walked slowly through.
From this church we went to lunch before heading on to the second church Smyrna. As we walked around Smyrna the weather got steadily worse and in the end we had to make a run for the bus as the rain came pouring down. But we did manage to see the whole ruins and to pray.
The amphitheater was awesome and we had a great view of the storm as it came towards us.
On the way home we stopped at a basilica the weather had improved enough that we did not get wet and we had good time. A basilica is just a name for a building with a domed roof but most of them have been used at a church as one point soon we could assume that the basilica was also an old church.
There is so many old buildings that are really well preserved and still standing. This building has stood for a hundred years and was really still in good shape except for the roof.
It would be a couple of days before we would again be visiting churches but the next church we went to was Thyatira.
I did not get as many pictures of these ruins but some were a lot smaller and not as well preserved. This must have been a lot smaller of a community.
The next church we visited was Ephesus.
This was the largest and best preserved of all the ruins. It took us along time to walk around it and we were able to learn a lot about life in that time period. Our guide was great and always had a lot of interesting things to point out and explain to us. In the distance we could see the port of long ago it is now in a prairie but at one time this was a busy port town.
The main street
This was a three story library one of the tallest building of its time and a great collection of literature.
Art students and visiting artist had set up easels and were practicing. A few were even selling some of their work.
A view of the spreading ancient city.
The amphitheater
We went to the top of the amphitheater and our guide stayed below to show us just how amazing the acoustic were. We could actually hear him really well and when he dropped some money we could all hear it land. This theater could hold a thousand people and all would be able to hear without the speaker needing a microphone.
Praying and reading scripture.
Toilets we all decided to have a seat and see how they were.
Pretty comfortable just not very private.
Listening to our guide.
After seeing Ephasis we headed home with just a quick stop at Saint Johns church. It was a nice stop it is still a beautiful church and even though we were tired we enjoyed getting to see it.
This ancient church was slowly being surrounded by a growing city.
This church had beautiful mosaic floors.
On the third and final day we would see the last three churches starting with Sardis.
These are old aqueducts its amazing how long these clay pipes have survived in the rock.
They had an amazing water system that sustained a lot of people a long time.
This church was also part of a small community so not as much left to see.
The next church was Philadelphia and it was my favorite.
The last of the churches was Laodicea.
A beautiful view of the surrounding city. This was one of my favorite views.
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