Our Last Day

Our morning began well before the sun rose with a wake-up call of 4:30 a.m. We said good-bye to Gokhan our tour guide these last few days and boarded a plane to Istanbul. We were greeted by our new guide Holcom and a brief ride into the old city of Istanbul. We visited the site of the ancient hippodrome and saw the Egyptian obelisk for Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC) that was brought from the Karnak Temple to Istanbul by the Roman emperor Theodosius I in the 4th century AD. Next, we visited the Blue Mosque after removing our shoes and women borrowed blue scarves for a head covering. This mosque, still in use today, is filled with glass lanterns, red carpet and hand painted blue mosaics on the walls. It was built by Sultan Ahmed in the 1600’s. Right across the square is Hagia Sophia, meaning “Holy Wisdom” in Greek. It was built as a Christian church in 537 AD, then in 1453 it served as an Ottoman mosque and is now a museum.

The mosaics of Jesus and Mary are stunning. After finishing, we visited the Istanbul Archaeological Museum filled with finds from all over this country and the middle east. Some of particular interest were the Gezer calendar, one of our earliest Hebrew or Phoenician inscriptions from around the 10th century BC found in Gezer, Israel as well as the Hezekiah Tunnel or Siloam Tunnel inscription found in the City of David in Jerusalem dating to the 8th/7th century BC. We ended our day with a few minutes to wander the Grand Bazaar finding saffron, cashmere scarves, and Turkish delight. It was a sweet ending to our walking tour of Istanbul. We are all weary but full, and we are all ready to return to our loved ones back home!

Here is Mark teaching at Miletus

[audio id="mark-teaching" class="pb-html5-audio-element" mp3="https://gtitours.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/mark-teaching-at-miletus.mp3" autoplay="off" loop="off" preload="off" controls="on" flash_fallback="on" hidden="off"]