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Turkey Study Tour with Cornerstone Theological Seminary
March 1-9, 2025
Led by Bruce Henning
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Trip Blog Posts
Day 06 - Priene, Didyma, Miletus
posted on Sunday March 09 2025 at 12:00 am UTC
Our last full day In Turkey! Today we visited the ancient city of Priene and learned about its Hellenistic Architecture, seen most notably in its theatre. Here on the hill also was a temple to Athena, which was funded by Alexander the Great. It was a an incredible location with the valley...
Day 05 - Ephesus, Ephesus Museum, St. John's Basilica, Free Time
posted on Friday March 07 2025 at 7:00 pm UTC
Today was a much anticipated day for the trip. Today we visited the ruins of the City of Ephesus. Leaving early in the morning, we drove towards the ruins. Ozan pointed out as we drove the area of land where the harbor used to be for the city, and explained how the land was silting....
Day 04 - Aphrodisias, Weaving Center
posted on Thursday March 06 2025 at 7:00 pm UTC
Day 4 has wrapped. Some of us woke up early and went up in hot air balloons to explore the terrain of Turkey from the sky. The rest got to sleep in a bit! Today we visited Aphrodisias- a city dedicated to the greek goddess Aphrodite in western Anatolia. We saw fantastic buildings such...
Day 03 - Hierapolis, Colossae, Laodicea
posted on Wednesday March 05 2025 at 8:00 pm UTC
Day 3 is in the books! We started the day off early with breakfast around 6:30 am! We left for our first stop and Hieropolis, but arrived too early to go inside the site. This allowed us some time to pull off to the side of the road and take photos of the amazing hot air balloons, which some...
Day 02 - Sardis
posted on Wednesday March 05 2025 at 1:00 am UTC
Day 2 was a success! After a great buffet breakfast, we made our way to the ruins of Sardis. Dating back to around 3000 BC, Sardis holds the distinction of being the first location where coins were minted. We stood on the stones of a main road and discussed how this was connected to...
Day 01 - Pergamum
posted on Tuesday March 04 2025 at 1:00 am UTC
Day one started bright and early as we left our hotel after a delicious breakfast around 6 a.m to head to Pergamum! We began our day by taking rail cars up to the famous Akropolis in Pergamum. Here we walked the ancient ruins of the Temple of Trajan, the location of the Altar of Zeus,...
Day 00 - ARRIVAL
posted on Monday March 03 2025 at 1:00 am UTC
We have made it Izmir, Turkey! After a long day of travel between taking a bus from Grand Rapids to Chicago, a flight from Chicago to Istanbul, and Istanbul to Izmir, we have finally made it to our first stop. After arriving in Izmir we were greeted by our guide and bus and came back to the hotel for...
Preparing for Turkey
posted on Tuesday January 21 2025 at 8:17 pm UTC
Our trip will be here before you know it! Once we're on the ground we'll post periodic updates and photos. Check back often or get update notifications using the subscribe options on this page. We'll be sharing our travel experiences online with you, our friends and family, to not only bring you along...