Turkey

Last week we did our second out of Israel trip to Turkey. When I first heard that we would be going to Turkey I thought we would be driving, but I later discovered that driving would require us to go through Lebanon or Syria. As you can imagine that would not be the greatest of ideas given the current situation in that area of the world. To save time and preserve our lives we flew to Turkey. The flight provided a really cool view of Turkey's geography and a night view of Istanbul which was the city we flew into.

The week before we went to Turkey it snowed there so we came expecting it be cold and either raining or snowing. The weather surprised us. It was chilly a few days but it never rained on us. It was usually jacket weather, but a few times it warmed up enough to just be wearing a shirt.

While in Turkey I gained a lot of respect for this country that I hardly knew anything about before. The first thing I learned is that they speak Turkish in Turkey. That may sound stupid of me to have to learn that, but I just assumed they spoke Arabic since 98% of the country is Muslim. Interestingly until the 1920s they used Arabic letters to write Turkish but they switched to a Latin lettering system (letters similar to our alphabet). I really respect that the founders of the country decided to have a secular democratic government. I think that is part of the reason that Turkey's economy is doing very well while many countries in this area of the world struggle to develop strong economies.


The food in Turkey was pretty good. Basically every meal they started us off with what they called Lentil Soup, but it tasted more like potato soup. I liked it. The best dessert is Baklava. The top is a flaky pastry and the bottom is a sugary nut mixture. I don't really know how to better explain it, but I really enjoyed them.

I absolutely loved all of mosques in Turkey. It appeared that there was a greater ratio of mosques in Turkey than LDS chapels in the Utah. Most of the mosques had at least one dome and one minaret (the tower that they broadcast the call to prayer from), but many had multiple of each. In Istanbul we visited the Sultan Ahkmed Mosque (commonly know as the Blue Mosque because of its beautiful blue tile work on the inside). The Blue Mosque has six very tall minarets and a multiple dome structure that is just massive. Since Muslims do not use icons the interiors of mosques are decorated with elaborate calligraphy and geometric designs. My favorite mosque we visited was the Grand Mosque in Bursa. This dome has twenty domes because of a funny story. A sultan prayed to Allah and vowed that if he won the battle he was about to start that he would build twenty mosques to Allah for the victory. The sultan won the battle but decided to build a mosque with twenty domes instead of twenty mosques because it cost less. This dome was especially beautiful to me because the interior was more simple but with old calligraphy. Usually there is a fountain outside a mosque for ritual washing but this mosque was unique in that it had the fountain in the center of the mosque.

In downtown Istanbul we visited the Topkapi Palace which was one of the main palaces of the Sultan. The most interesting part of the palace complex for me was this sort of museum that had Muslim religious relics. They had the sword of David, the rod of Moses, artifacts from Mecca / Kaaba, and even pieces of Mohammed's beard. Most likely none of those items are actually what they are believed to be, but I like seeing how people memorialize important people, events, and items. As we went through this museum we were standing in front of a few Muslim women. I couldn't understand anything of what they were saying, but it was easy to see how excited they were to see these special relics.


While in Turkey we went on boat ride up the Bosphorus (the strip of water that goes through Istanbul to connect the Black Sea to the Mediterranean). We also took two ferry rides (one across the Dardanelles and another to get back to Istanbul). Two of our hotels were on the beach. Too bad the weather wasn't a little bit warmer so we could of enjoyed the water a little more.


Most of the sites we visited actually had Greek ruins. That surprised me at first, but now it makes sense. The Greeks live just across the sea from Turkey so anciently the Greeks had a lot of colonies in what is now modern day Turkey. The most well known site we went to was Troy. The setting of The Iliad by Homer is the Trojan Wars. Everybody has heard of the Trojan Horse so at this site they had a large wooden horse (about two stories tall) that the tourists can climb into and take pictures.

The early Christan Church had a lot of roots in Asia Minor which is now modern day Turkey. We visited several sites were Paul preached with his companions. Acts 19 tells of a conflict Paul had with the craftsmen at Ephesus. We went to the exact theater where this argument occurred. In the Bible appendix there is a picture of Ephesus. We look around to see exactly where the photo was taken. We found it so I got a picture of myself in the same view that is seen in the picture. We also went to Assos which is a city that Paul visited in Acts 20:13.


The beginning chapters of Revelation mention seven churches of Asia. We went to five of them: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, and Sardis. The two we missed are Philadelphia and Laodicea.


The modern Christian theology was more or less developed by a bunch of councils that took place in the fourth and fifth centuries. It was in these councils that the idea of the trinity was created. The first of these councils was held at Nicea which we visited. We went to couple of other locations were the subsequent councils were held. I'm so glad we have the Restored Gospel that clarifies the nature of God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost.


Our very last stop was the Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia was built in the 6th century and was the largest church in the world for over a millennium. There is one massive dome with other domes connected to it. When the Muslims conquered the city they turned it into a mosque. It is now a museum. It is so surprising to be that the building has lasted so long. In Jerusalem everything has been destroyed and rebuilt a bunch of times but the Hagia Sophia was been able to last for almost 1500 years. Pretty Cool.