Turkey: Volumes 2 and 3

Turkey, continued...

Day 2: Izmir and Ephesus

Our day in Ephesus was definitely one of my favorite days thus far on our trip, even though it required a 5:15 am wakeup call to catch our flight. The plane was delayed a little over an hour (which felt silly, since the flight itself was only 45 minutes), so my neighbor Mary and I struck up a conversation with a young Turkish businessman who was seated next to us. He talked to us all about the culture, some about the politics, and his own story, which involved going to college in the States and eventually become the product manager for G.E. over all Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It was refreshing to get a perspective on Turkey through the lens of a modern local, albeit a somewhat westernized one.

We landed in the city of Izmir, also known as Smyrna. We began by looking at the archaeological museum, which featured sculptures of Artemis from her temple in Ephesus. Then, we traveled to the Basilica of St. John, where John the Apostle was supposedly buried. Its original structure was restored by Justinian and Theodora. After lunch, we drove to the New Testament site of Ephesus. Of all of the ancient sites I have seen (and I have seen in excess of thirty by now), it is my favorite so far. Incredibly well-preserved and restored, the city rolls out before you in bleached white marble, complete with streets, pillars, the shells of buildings. Among the more notable things that we saw included: the ‘audio’ (which functioned as the meeting place for the city council AND a theater – perfect blend of my two passions); the Ephesian theater from Acts 19, where Paul and his companions faced a religiously ecstatic mob; the ancient Library of Celsus, which was the second largest library in Antiquity; and the church where Nestorius was condemned in the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. So many incredible sites and buildings all in such a comparatively small area! Finding 'actual sites' is a rare thing, so whenever we visit irrefutable Biblical sites, it is always exciting.

Part 3: Istanbul

Have you ever heard someone compared to a “whirling dervish”? I had heard the expression a few times, but had never really had a full grasp of what exactly it meant to be a dervish. I knew it was religious and involved spinning. But I didn’t know that they were based in Turkey, and I had no idea that I would witness one of their ceremonies.

We began our day on quite a different note from the dervishes. I may have mentioned to some of you before that we were scheduled to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch in Turkey. Bartholomew I is the close to the equivalent of the pope in the Eastern Orthodox church, and last year’s group had told us exciting stories about their meeting with him last year. Unfortunately, it was not to be – he left on an unexpected meeting to Finland. I was very disappointed, but we were still given a tour of the Patriarchate, which was beautiful. The room (we really only spent time in the main area of the church), seemed that it had sprung straight from Timothy Ware’s pages. Covered in gold and icons, incense still hung about the air. I must admit, my Protestant sensibilities still revolted a little bit against the extreme decoration, thought not quite as badly as if I had had no education about the tradition before. The thought crossed my mind, though – what did Jesus think of all of these solemn depictions of him? Even more so, what did and does God think of our art, our own small creations?

After the Patriarchate, we toured the Chora Museum, a former monastery. It boasted many impressive, story-telling mosaics. However, it was also oppressively hot, so the minutes began to stretch. After the Chora, we headed to the Grand Bazaar for a few hours of shopping, one of my favorite things to do when I'm abroad.

We finished the day by attending what I can only call a piece of theater. The whirling dervishes are Sufi Muslims and religious followers of the poet/philosopher Rumi. The program described the dervishes as mystical dancers who stand between the material and cosmic worlds. The dance is part of a sacred ceremony in which the dervish rotates in a precise rhythm, one hand open to God and one hand cupped downward towards earth. The purpose of the ritual whirling is for the dervish to empty himself of all distracting thoughts, placing him in trance to reach a form of nirvana; released from his body he conquers dizziness. The dervishes have long shared their dance in public settings. Now, it is a popular tourist attraction. After twenty minutes of Sufi music, the dervishes enter and begin their dance. It is slow, somber, mesmerizing, a religious practice and experience as performance. Sometimes I felt terribly intrusive, other times curious, other times just sleepy.

After the dervishes, we headed back to our hotel to pack for our bus ride to Greece!

Photos are coming soon... bandwidth isn't handling them very well here.