I actually slept good last night, that is, until about 5am, when the Muslim call to prayer woke me up. I always thought the call to prayer would be more like an alarm clock: something to alert you of the time to do something. Make some noise and done. This was more like a long ballad, a single voice crooning in a language I don’t understand, with long pauses between sections (stanzas? verses?). The voice would wander about the musical spectrum unintelligibly (to me, at least) and then stop. Great, I can go to sleep again. Ten seconds later it would start back up again. This went on for several minutes. After several of these start-stops I began to wonder if sleep was done for the day. Each time I started hoping I could drift off, the voice would start anew. Each time, those hopes shattered by the crooning, audible plainly through windows shut tight. I should have timed it.
Breakfast was again a big spread of all things familiar and unfamiliar. And I was actually able to eat something. In addition to the omelette, which was delicious, I decided to try a pancake. Problem was, which of these dozen or so sauce/syrup dishes was appropriate for pancakes? Being the adventurous gringo that I am, I looked for maple syrup and found something resembling such. Turns out it was honey. Not the worst thing in the world, but a little unexpected on a pancake.
Two big destinations today, each probably deserving of a day or more of exploration, however, we only have so much time and many more sites to visit. Both sites had way more sights and history than can be processed in a single entry, so I won’t go into detail yet. Maybe I’ll add more color later on.
Several things of note at Heiropolis, the theater, the tomb and martyrium for the apostle, Philip, and the healing pools. The theater, restored by Italian archaeologists, is one of the finest archeological restorations around. Standing twice as tall as it now does, the original structure must have been a wonder.
It is here and other theaters like it that stage productions began as purely worship, here of the god, Dionysus. Over time, characters were introduced, one by one, the first being introduced by a guy named Thespis around 534BC. He pioneered a character stepping out and dialoging with the choir. From his name we get the word thespian. Later on it was two characters, then three. Then it was satire and social critique from the stage.
Aristotle observed much later that the stage shapes people. He called it catharsis - the idea that people weren’t merely being entertained by were being emotionally and morally shaped. What was normalized on the stage gradually because normalized in society and identity. We are being shaped by whatever we give our attention to.
And the challenge to us was: which voice are we listening to the most? The call is to intentionally posture ourselves towards God’s voice rather than the world’s stage.
I’ve never heard of a martyrium before. And once we arrived there after a rather steep climb from the theater, we were asked to identify the ruins in which we now stood. Lots of good guesses but martyrium was not one of them. This martyrium was built to honor Philip, the apostle, who was martyred here. He was also buried here and his likely tomb was discovered in 2011 a scant 50 yards from here.
The lesson here, to summarize 20 minutes of teaching, was that Philip was faithful unto death, and we are called to do the same. It may not be physical death, but dying to personal ambition and desires which is often a harder calling.
Heiropolis is also known for its hot springs, which have been believed to have healing qualities for centuries. People come from all around to take a dip in the hot water, which ranges anywhere from tepid to boiling, and today there were hundreds of people wading about in the travertine pools.
We took a wade also, although approaching the water in bare feet made for very sore feet because of the uneven ground. So far it hasn’t cured my toenail fungus yet.
Lunch was another enormous spread at a nearby restaurant. If I wasn’t so sick yesterday, I would probably have gained five pounds already.
Next stop was Laodicea. The sheer size of this site is staggering. What was once a grassy hill with a few rocks poking out of it has now become some very large and very interesting artifacts, and it is still a work in progress. As an example, there are two theaters here, one is still in its unrestored form and the other has had extensive restoration to it. I’ll let the pictures tell the story:
One theater. The form can be seen, with some of the stone peeking through.
The other theater. Most of this looked like the first theater ten years ago.
Laodicea was called out in Revelation 3 for being wretched, poor, blind, and naked. On the surface this sounded like a simple bad description, just stringing a few descriptive words together, but Laodicea was a political powerhouse of the day (wretched), the city was rich, even turning down money from from the Roman Emperor (poor), some unique minerals here were used to make eye salve to cure various eye troubles (blind), and this was an area of sheep and high-end textiles (naked).
A large house which included an addition that was used for a house church suggests that the church in Laodicea heeded the warnings. In addition, a large church built during the 4th century is being unearthed which further supports this. This church was quite large and even had indoor plumbing, intricate mosaic floors, and a baptistry.
A few more pictures from this location
Deb walking a Roman road.
Main Street.
The added-on nave of the house church
And now we are back at the same hotel as last night and we enjoyed another lavish spread for dinner and will spend some time in the hot pool.
And this is just a brief summary...
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