July 4th ~ Monday

So today was the start of the second day of our tour. We first stopped to get a few more pictures from below the beyaz cennet, calcium mountain. After that we drove to the Laodikeia excavation site, this is either the fastest excavating site or one of the two fastest. They just discovered a rather large church. But first some history....

This Hellenistic city was founded in the 3rd century BC by the Seleucid King Antiochus 2, and was named after his wife Laodike. It became a part of the Roman empire in 130/129 BC. The city was destroyed and rebuilt because of earthquakes many times until abandoned after a large earthquake in 602-610 AD. This city was ruled by the Byzantine and Ottoman empires after the Roman empire.

So the city was built on a grid system. The main street which w walked on was lined by columns that would have had a roof going back from the road which created a covered sidewalk it was probably about five feet deep. There were the outlines of the buildings which had lined the road and would have been stores. This whole valley was known for it's textiles as well as an eye salve and it was also extremely rich.

The roads in this area are slabs of rock and marble that were laid over a drainage system. This way all sewage and waste water was flushed out of the city under the road. But if there was a problem they could lift the slab. But it is rather rough and not smooth with gaps going down where you can see the empty space beneath you. I am sure it was at least a little smoother in it's glory days. But it still would not have been even and the gaps between slabs would have still been there. This made me think about blind Bartimaeus, the roads would have been similar in Jericho because of the Roman influence, which would have made it rally difficult to walk on as a blind person because it would have been uneven. Also the beggars cloaks were used to collect the change thrown to them, one reason being that if it was thrown on the ground it would be harder to locate. But as I was thinking about the road structure with the gaps between slabs it would have been easy to also loose the money. Because money that did not land on the cloak could easily fall between the slabs. But it says in Mark 10:50 that Bartimaues threw away his cloak... Now I am pretty sure they wee outside of the city but still I could not help but picture what the life a beggar would be like and how much faith it would take to throw away once cloak.

This city is mentioned in Colossians 4:12-16. So yesterday we went to Colosae where Colossians was sent to, we also went to Hierapolis and today we went to Laodicea and sat at the fountain of Nympha, which is not actually related to the church that met at Nympha's house it is just a cool tie in. This is also the seventh church mentioned in Revelation 3:14-22. So the imagery that is used in this passage was unique to the city being addressed. Laodicea was situated between Hoerapolis, with it's hot springs, and the mountains on the other side, that had snow, so they were in the middle and neither hot nor cold. So verse 15 would have brought up great imagery for them that they would understand and relate to. Then if you continue it talks about how they are poor, blind, and naked. If you remember I mentioned earlier they were known for there wealth, eye salve, and textiles in this city so the contrast between the actually city and how they were spiritually would have been quite apparent. Also it might have because of the pride of their wealth, eye salve, and textiles that contributed to there lukewarm faith.

Okay now more about the actual structures. So as I mentioned there was a newly discovered church that they let us walk around even though they are still excavating it, we might have been the first group to get to because we were given special permission. It was rather large for churches of the time and had lots of pillars and was impressive. (I will try and get pictures for ya all)

There was also the remains of a Gymnasium, which was there school houses not a gym. There was also a bath house connected and I think a place to work out (I forget it's name), these were not always combined but they were here. There was also a stadium, where they would have done there sports as well as gladiators. They still had a section standing where people would train for the stadiums. You could also see the vomitorians which were the exit tunnels from the stadium, yes this is where the word vomit comes from. There were a couple other bath houses and many other ruins.

The water system here was incredible! There water source was higher up in the mountains to the left and they would use stone pipes, sometimes clay or metal but normally stone because of the water pressure, to move the water about 6K to the city and then it would go to a distribution tower where it would be distributed to all the different places. This whole system just used gravity to make it work. Some of the clay pipes were still visible in the ground and we were able to see some of the stone pipes and stone connector areas for where the pressure would be more intense.

Then the pillars were brought in pre cut and prepared. They would have one section that had a metal rod that went down and would fit into a groove of the other piece. They would then pour molten metal into a groove that went from the edge of the rock to the center. They would cut the groove to get deeper so that they did not need to use an type of pressure devise to force the molten metal through. The metal when it cooled would expand and hold the pieces together.

The Romans structures would be planned in advance and then exact numb roof pieces would be ordered and they would come pre labeled and it would all be grooved and would fit together perfectly without any type of mortar. During the Byzantine and Ottoman empires they would take apart the Roman buildings to make there own buildings, they would then use mortar because the rocks were not created to perfectly go together. So this is one way to tell the structures apart. But there are not a lot of just Roman buildings standing anymore because of this practice.

So I gathered all that information by asking lots of questions. But I honestly think it is really fascinating how they were able to design so many advance structures.

We are now on our way Ephesus which is about a three hour bus ride from here.

Ephesus is huge! This site was actually the third location of Ephesus and the site where Paul would have visited. It eventually was abandoned because the harbor kept receding and it was no longer a harbor town. Then because the harbor became marshy there was a TON of mosquitoes and they drove all the people out of the town. In the peak of it's time the city held 225,000 people. We were able to see the political meeting theater, and the temple of Artemis from Acts 19. We also saw many pillars, roads, bath house, toilet house, other temples, the goddess nike, Terrance houses, the great library, public bazaar area, the theater, and mile markers plus many other things.

But let's break it down a little bit. The political meeting area was at the higher end if town and resembled a small theater. It was surrounded by a wide road area with pillars and statues.

Right next to this was a temple where they found a intact statues of Artemis that had been buried. It is believed to have been hidden during the Christian area by people who hoped to bring it out and reinstate worship to her at a more opportune time. There was also temples for different Caesar or anyone rich enough.

There was a motif of the goddess Nike. Who was the goddess of victory. The Nike symbol comes from this goddess, it is a part of her flowing gown. In the letter to Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7 verse 6 which refers to the Nicolaitans. This refers to people who claimed so much victory in Christ that they went to access. They could do anything because they had victory in Christ. A part of this was the eating of food sacrificed to idols. Apparently it was the common thing to have business meetings that centered around the eating of food sacrificed to idols in the temple. Then after finishing the food they would have a sexual orgy.

The bath house and public restrooms were also interesting. The bath house was huge and rich men would spend all day there. They could bath, eat, do business, and have sex. So they were a very central part of the society. The only reason that the rich men would normal have a wife and go home was because the wife provided a legal heir. The restrooms were large square or rectangle buildings. Inside along the wall there was a trough with running water, over this trough was built a long bench with a marble top with lots of holes. About a foot in front of this would be another trough, cut into the ground not raised, with running water to wash in. The center had pillars and was up to the air to let all smells escape. Many men could use this at the same time and do business as they took care of business :-)

Another thing of interest was the Terrance houses. These were houses for rich people that were built into the side of the mountain. You can still see the marble and mosaics. Also the size of the houses and rooms were staggering. Hopefully in will get some pictures soon to so you all.

Next came the library which was three stories high with four statues out front. It was suppose to be either the largest or one of the largest I forget which. It was also a tomb/temple thing for some important rich guy :-)

To Be Continued...