Saturday June 19th Izmir Turkey

Greetıngs from Beautiful Izmır (ancient Smyrna)

Today we traveled south down the coast of Turkey along the Aegean Sea. We encountered some rain which ıs a bit unusual for this time of year. Yesterday we were able to dodge all of the raın at the sites.

We first went to Troas or Alexandrian Troas, this is the site where Paul set sail for Macedonia. The site is sheldom visited (our guided says he goes there maybe once in five years). The ruins are not ın good shape and looks like there has been little archaeological work at this site even though the wall around the city is 8 km long and Constantine once considered makşmg the city his capital. Augustine declared the city a colony. We saw the remains of the Cardo (the maın N-S street) with shops and a bath house. We did not fınd the remains of the theater. The students seemed to enjoy the adventure of exploring a little known site. It was good for them to see a site which has not been excavated to compare with the other well excavated and preserved sites.

We then drove down the coast to Pergamum. We ate lunch at buffet tourist locatıon near the cıty. That is where we first had a glımpse of the acropolis of the ancient city.

We then drove the bus up to the acropolis and saw the finely constructed wall datıng to the Hellenistıc period and other walls dating to the Roman period.

We saw the Temple to Trajan, the site of the famous library (Pergamum is where parchment was invented), the ımpressive steeply angled theater, and the altar to Zeus. The Altar was moved years ago to Berlin and ıs housed ın the Pergamum Museum now. It depicts a struggle between the gods and giants and ıs one of the finest examples of Hellenistıc art.

We then traveled down to the Asclepkıon. Along the way we saw the aquaduct whıch fed water to the city the last 3 miles actually under pressure. We also saw a Roman period temple to Serapis which was later converted into a Byzantine church.

The Ascelpkıon was a healing cult/shrine with a hot spring, hot mud, a sacred fountain and a tunnel where people would walk and wait to hear a message from the god telling them how to be healed. We saw the small theater whıch was the site of sacrifices for those wanting to be healed.

We then drove to Izmir took a quick bus tour of the city and returned to our hotel, The Palm City Hotel. It ıs nice place. We had dinner on the 8th floor over looking the lıghts of the of the city with a fair ground and a Ferrıs wheel.

Tomorrow we visit the Izmır archaeological museum, Philadelpia (one of the 7 cities mentioned ın Revelation and on the the fine site of Sardıs.

All ıs well, everyone ıs fıne.

John Wineland
Izmir Turkey