Getting Salted in the Land of the Hittites

Today we left Cappadocia and headed to Ankara, the capital of Turkey. We didn't stop at any biblical sites, but we did visit the salt lake and the Anatolian Civilization Museum.

The salt lake was interesting. It is much larger than the Dead Sea, but it is also very shallow. In fact the water was not more than a few inches high. Apparently the lake is no more than 10 centimeters high at its deepest. Also different than the Dead Sea is the makeup of the bottom. The Dead Sea is very rocky, this however is nothing but rock salt that crushes under your feet when you walk. Here is a pic of us standing in the water.

We are standing in water on salt, not snow.

Another stop we made was at the Anatolian Civilization Museum.  Unfortunately, much  the museum is closed due to remodeling. But we were able to get into the rooms with the Hittite display.

Anatolian Mother Goddess

Tomorrow we head to Bursa and then back to Istanbul on Thursday to fly him.

Going Underground in Galatia

The last two days we have been in the area that the Romans called the province of Galatia. We drove from Antalia to Konya, which is ancient Iconium. There is not much to tell here other than that Paul passed through Iconium on his first missionary journey (Acts 13:51-14:6; 16:2). It was also to a group of churches somewhere in this area that Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians. If you are familiar with the story of Paul and Thecla, Iconium is also the setting for that story.

The one thing that did impress me was the terrain. The Mountains that we crossed were 8,000 feet at some points and very rugged. I wondered about Paul, Barnabas and others crossing this area as they sought places to preach the gospel. They must have been quite fit and I suspect they hitched rides when they could. Here is a picture of some of the terrain taken from our van.

Today we went into the area of Cappadocia. This area is in central Anatloia and has some unusual topography. Here are some pictures of the area. The strange looking hills are made from volcanic ash that has slowly been eroded over time.

The soft material in the area also meant that people could carve into the hills and build homes, churches and even a monastery as Saint Basil did here in the 5^th century. Here are some pictures of the churches within the monastery.

Cave Church

Fresco inside one of the cave churches

Tomorrow we head for Ankara, the capital of Turkey. I will post what I can.