Sunday – May 11 Antakya (Antioch of Syria), Seleucia

Today is going to be a special day.  First, it is the Lord's day and we will be worshipping in Antakya, the place we know as Antioch of Syria in the Bible.  I've heard about Antioch all of my life and it is truly hard to believe that we are worshiping today in this place where the disciples were first called Christians. Ferrell preached a lesson on what we can learn from what was a model church in many ways at Antioch.  Saul (Paul) and Barnabas spent at least a year here strengthening and teaching the church. A congregation of both Jews and Gentiles, they were praised for their faith, unity, generosity, strong teaching program and foreign evangelism (Acts 11, 13-14). However, we also know that after the New Testament times, the church here began to departure from the early teachings.  We must be careful to follow the pattern of the Bible and not follow the teachings of men. 

Christians worshipping in Antioch.

Today is also Mother's Day.  We wish all the mothers back home a wonderful day.  Being the wonderful guide he is, Orhan presented each lady with a lovely red carnation.  He tells us that is it a day of honor in Turkey too.  Orhan has shared with us a lot about the family culture here in Turkey.  The mother has the say so in everything in the home. This is especially interesting to us based on other observations from our trip.  We often see groups of men gathered on porches and cafés, playing cards and smoking.  We never see any ladies present.  Instead, we have seen numerous ladies out in the fields picking greens - even today on Mother's Day.  I hope someone cooked them a nice dinner today, but I think it's not likely! 

Antioch was founded in 300 BC by Seleucus to honor his father Antiochus.  It is located at the foot of Mt. Silpius on the Orontes River (below).  Our hotel over looks what is left of the river. Syria has dammed the flow so all that remains is filled with trash and odor. Even so, some were seen fishing from its banks.  

After services, we walked a couple of blocks to the Antakya Museum. As with the museum in Ankara, it was under renovation and only a small section of the museum was open.  There were beautiful mosaic tile artifacts (below) that had been on floors of home from a nearby area in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.  We also saw a beautiful marble sarcophagus.  

Next, we headed southwest "down" toward the coast.  In Bible times this port city was called Seleucia.  In Acts 13:4, Saul and Barnabas set sail for Cyprus from this port.  Today, the port has been silted in and only fragments of the wall (below) are visible somewhat inland from the sea.  

We stopped for a hike up to what is known as Titus' Tunnel.  Construction started by the Roman's during Vespasian's reign and finished under his son, Titus (~79-81AD).  They believe it was built to divert the nearby river and prevent it from silting up.  Along the way, we passed an arched bridge (below) from the same time period, beautiful flowers, and stunning views of the sea.  

The tunnel is 4430 ft long and cuts through the mountain in two places. Several in the group had quite an adventure walking through tunnel, but I had on sandals, so I had to visit the neighboring tombs via an easier route.

 There is a complex of tombs carved into the rock, some with amazing views of the sea.  

 

We had lunch overlooking the Mediterranean and then hurried to the waters edge to dip our toes in the beautiful blue waters. It was amazing to look out over the Mediterranean and imaging sailing off across the waters.  The sand was very dark and hot.  By the time we got back to the bus our feet were black and our bus driver just shook his head.  We were not getting on "his" bus like that.  He brought out a bucket of water, and Bruce, following the pattern of the early Christians, literally washed our feet. I'm sure there will be pictures on someone's blog before the end of the trip.

Brad and Kim at our restaurant overlooking the Meditteranian Sea.

Our efforts to visit a couple of other ruins were unsuccessful.  Both the St. Simeon monastery and St. Peter's church were both closed for renovation.  The trip to the monastery was an amazing drive up the mountain.  The top was dotted with enormous wind turbine.  Since we couldn't go into the monastery site, we took pictures of the guard and his dogs (more like horses) and the turbines.  They made a strange whooshing sound as they slowly rotated.  

 

Frustrated, but hopeful for the future of the region, Orhan reminded us that these renovations are a good thing.  I guess we will just have to come back when they are open.