Thursday September 23

Today is the last day of our Study Tour before we fly out for a break in Bangkok to recover!

Parthenon

Fittingly it was the climax of the tour as we visited the Acropolis, the Areopagus and the marketplace where Paul spent many hours preaching the gospel.



The Acropolis contains the Parthenon, the Temple to Athena (Parthenon means virgin which apparently Athena was) and a Temple to Poseidon.

Parthenon

Temple to Poseidon

It was amazing to stand on the Areopagus and realise that when Paul spoke about all the Temples he'd seen in Athens (Acts 17:22-23) he was able to point to the Acropolis just a short distance away where the major temples were or down to the marketplace where there were other temples..

Areopagus

Acropolis from Areopagus

The restoration work here is extensive and ongoing, such a contrast to some of the places we visited where money has limited what could be done.

Wednesday September 22

We're now in Athens for 3 nights. We can look up to the Acropolis from the balcony of our Room.







From Athens we travelled to Corinth around an hour away.

We stopped at the canal that now crosses the narrow Isthmus where previously there was a carriageway that allowed cargo and small ships to be transported from the Adriatic sea port to the Aegean Sea port at Cenchreae where Phoebe was one of the Deacons (Rom 16:1).

Corinth Canal

Votive offerings to God of Healing, Esklapeius

We then continued to ancient Corinth, a city that housed 500-750,000 people in its heyday.

There they've discovered a Temple to Esclapeion the God of healing that contained lots of votive offerings in the form of body parts that needed healing.













We also saw the Bema or Judgment Seat where Gallio ruled that the Jews had no case against Paul for preaching Jesus Christ (Acts 18:12-16). An inscription we saw in Delphi dates this event at 52AD.


We saw a further inscription here that refers to Erastus paying for the paving of a street near the Theatre. Erastus Is mentioned in Rom 16:23 as the City Treasurer and one of Paul's companions.

Tuesday September 21st

Delphi plan

Delphi became famous because the God Zeuss was believed to have released 2 birds from opposite sides of the (flat) earth and thos was where they met. Hence Delphi was the centre of the earth. Therefore Apollo chose to make this the place where he would give prphecies through his Oracle, an ordinary older woman chosen from among the local people. Delphi means Dolphins, the sea animal that Apollo was thought to ride.


People would travel to Delphi to ask a question and the oracle would go into a trance, chanting meaningless words which would be translated by the priests and writtten down for the questioner to take away.

Sphinx

6th centrury BC Egyptian style statues

Gold ornaments

Apollo Plate

Temple of Apollo

Various cities in Greece came to build structures to hold votive offerings of various sorts, often vying with each other for the grandest display of devotion.

The city dates from the 6th century BC but in the early Christian centuries the pagan altars were destroyed and much of the metal in the statues, etc., was melted down to be used to make utensils, weapons etc. or in the case of gold to be used as money.


As in other places there has been some restoration but the ground is littered with bits and pieces of buildings: wall blocks, pieces of columns, etc. The museum houses the better pieces that have been recovered including some impressive statues and friezes.

Monday September 20th

We began the day with a visit to two of the monasteries of Meteora. These monasteries are built on the tops of rocky outcrops and were originally accessible only by a dangerous climb or via a basket hauled up by a winch or windlass.

Because they are perched on the edge of the rock face they were given the name Meteora which in Greek means in mid-air.

They were built in the early 14th century by monks escaping persecution from Muslims in the middle East. The first Monastery reputedly took 22 years to haul the materials up the mountain then 20 days to build.



The winches and windlass for bringing peole up the mountain are still there but these days they have an electric motor and it's only used for lifting building materials and supplies as there are now modern footpaths and steps for visitors to climb.

Wooden ladder

Winch

Windlass

Net for lifting people and goods to the monastery

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Goods being lifted for builders

Each Monastery has a small church or chapel, just large eugh for the small number of monks living in he monastery and beautifully decorated with Byzantine icons depicting Biblical characters, scenes and saints.

Sunday September 19

Being Sunday our first stop was at a church. The Basilica of St Demetri was built in the 4th Century on the site of the old Roman Baths where Demetri had been martyred and buried for his Christian Faith.

When we arrived the service had been going for about an hour and still had two or more hours to go. The chanting by the team of male cantors was beautiful with counterpoint and harmony featuring to make a wonderful sound. However it's hard to say how much of the message of the service came through. Everything was chanted including the Bible readings. Needless to say we didn't wait for the service to finish.



We then drove through the old town following the city wall to the acropolis and the Trigonion Tower.

White Tower Thessalonika

City Wall Thessalonika

Trigonion Tower Thessalonika Acroplois

Then it was on to Beroea, the only city mentioned in Acts where Paul wasn't thrown out of the synagogue, but instead they studied the Scriptures carefully to see if what he said was true. The Bema (Podium - the thrtee steps in the centre) where he preached the gospel to the population is commemorated in a mosaic decorated shrine.








From there it was on to Vergina, the best archeological site yet, though unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos so all you can see is the place we had lunch! At Vergina a Greek archeologist had noticed a large mound (14metres high) in the middle of the town that looked like a burial mound - what we would call a Barrow, but the Greeks call a Tumulus. So he decided to explore it and slowly uncovered a large cemetery with many graves that had been broken up by grave robbers. Eventually though they came across two untouched and sealed burial chambers built in stone, one 9.5m by 4m, the otehr 6.5X4m. They discovered that these contained the remains of King Philp II of Greece and probably the 15 year old Alexander IV who was assassinated, along with an amazing collection of belongings buried with them including stunning gold wreaths fashioned like oak leaves and acorns.


All of these are now housed in an underground display room that is made to look like the original burial mound.

Mt Olympus

Finally we drove 3 hours (!) to our next hotel via Mt Olympus, which we could just see through the smog.

Saturday September 18

We stayed overnight in a lovely hotel in Kavala.

Ephesus Theatre

We're not sure if it's because we're in Greece rather than Turkey or just because this is the first 4 star hotel we've stayed in but we'd have been happy to spend a few nights here. Kavala was originally Neapolis, one of the ports that Paul used to travel from Asia to Macedonia/Greece and back.





This morning after a beautiful breakfast, (I mention this because it was the first time I could describe breaakfast in such terms!) we drove to ancient Philippi, again one of the cities that Paul visited and to which he wrote one of his letters. There is extensive excavation happening, by two groups, one French and the other Greek (separated by a wire fence!). The theatre is in the French section.





We saw two Basilicas - ancient churches dedicated to Christ the King. The one shown here was never consecrated because the dome roof fell in soon after being built and they abandoned it.

Basilica B

Agora

We saw the marketplace (Agora) where Paul probably cast out the evil spirit from the young girl, thus causing a riot and his and Silas' imprisonment. We were also shown a room that some people suggest is the gaol, but I wasn't convinced, as it seemed too small.

Apart from the Basilicas there is an interesting hexagonal shaped church with some beautiful mosaics on the floor and an intact crypt containing a sarcophagus dating back to long before the church was built.

Hexagonal Church

River outside Philippi

We then drove to the riverside site of a Roman bridge where it's thought Paul probably met and baptised Lydia and the other Jewish women with her. Naturally the riverside now has both a chapel next to the river and a baptistry connected to the river where people come to be baptised. While we were there a child was being baptised in the chapel so we couldn't go inside.

Friday September 17

A trip to Turkey would not be complete without a visit to Gallipoli.

We left by boat ferry early in the morning to travel the few km from Cannakale to Gallipoli. I can't tell you how moving it was to stand on the hill above Anzac Cove and look down on that beautifully clear water and white sand. It was a scene of such peace yet the scene of terrible and unnecessary horror.

Even more moving was to walk into the small cemetery nearby where a hundred or so Australians are buried. To see graves of young men of 17 or 18, or men who are named as only sons left us in tears and lost for words.





The cemetery was small only because most of the fallen were left where they were, not to be buried until after the war when Commonwealth forces joined with the Turkish government to build the cemeteries as memorials. Most of the 8,500 Australians(!) who died there in just a few months are named as either buried in umnmarked graves or simply lost. The list at Lone Pine is extensive.












We were also reminded that the loss was on both sides as we visited the Turkish cemetery where no-one had a date of birth, just the year of birth and the town they came from. The curent Lone Pine was grown from a seed brought from Australia, possibly form the tree in Wattle Park that was grown from a seed brought back after 1915.

There we saw a statue to the gallant Turkish soldiers, led by Kamal Ataturk, who held off the British & Anzac forces until reinforcements arrived. There was also the statue of a 110 year old Turkish Veteran who visited the cemetery with his great great great granddaughter on the 85th anniversay of the Gallipoli campaign. 

There are  many stories told of the kindness shown by both Anzac and Turkish soldiers to those on the other side. One of the most moving stories is depicted in the statue here. During one of the ceasefires called to bring injured soldiers back to be cared for, an Australian soldier was left far from the Aussie trenches. A Turkish soldier tied his white T-shirt to his rifle and went out to pick up the injured man and carried hm across the battle ground to the Australian Trench. There were other stories involving sharing of magazines and tobacco that I can tell you when I get back.

Thursday September 16

Today we drove to Assos, Troas, Troy and Cannakale.

Assos is an anceient Greek city once the home to Plato
and Aristotle. The main feature remaining is a Temple to Athena that is currently under restoration.

Model of Temple of Athena

Temple of Athena

Remains of Troas Harbour

Troas is mostly in ruins, includdingthe harbour where Paul came and went on several occasions,

Entry To Troy City

Troy is much more developed, though an Austrian named
Schliemann who first discovered the site basically plundered it for anything of worth and then left with the spoils.









We did see the Trojan horse, though there's some doubt as to its authenticity.

Wednesday September 15

Today we went to Pergamum, site one of the 7 churches of Revelation, the place where Satan has his throne. We didn't see the throne, thought to be the Temple of Zeus because it's in the Berlin Pergamum Museum! But that's OK becuause we saw it there in 2004.

Roman Bath

There is however a remaining Temple to Trajan, one of the Caesars.