Study Tour 2013

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Anzac Cove, Istanbul - Turkey

The morning started with a dawn service at North Beach near Anzac Cove. Assoc Prof Daniel Reynaud presented a fascinating insight into the Anzac story. After the service we visited a number of grave sites: Beach cemetery, Lone Pine cemetery and memorial and the Turkish cemetery and memorial.

For the people of modern Turkey the Battle of Çanakkale, as they call the Turkish struggle to retain control of the Gallipoli peninsula and the Straits of the Dardanelles, the Çanakkale Boğazi, in 1915, was one of the defining moments in their history. Two powerful European powers, Britain and France, tried to wrest that control from Turkey. They had even promised, if successful in their efforts to defeat Turkey, to give the capital, Constantinople, and the Straits of the Bosphorus to the Russian Empire. The failure of the British and French campaign, and the many stories of the resistance of the Turks, is remembered and honoured by dozens of memorials and historic sites on Gallipoli and along the Asiatic shore of the Dardanelles.

After our visit to Gallipoli we travelled to Istanbul. As soon as we arrived in Istanbul we headed for the world's largest bazar...

After an hour and a half of site seeing in the bazar, a feast of colour, smoke (tabacco and other) and

View from our Hotel window in the morning.

North Beach

The Sphinx - looking up from North Beach

North Beach

The Wreaths we laid in memory of Aust, NZ and Turkish troups

The Anzac Service

The tour group

North beach the other direction

President of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's

comments about foreign soldiers 1934

Beach Memorial

Monument at Beach Memorial

Actual Anzac Cove remains of jetty

Beach Graves

Lone Pine Grave site

A Grave

A memorial to the oldest Turkish Gallipoli soldiers
who died at 110

Turkish Memorial and grave site

Trenches

View of Gallipoli Memorial across Gallipoli peninsular

Memorial to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

The Blue Mosque

A Street in Istanbul near the Blue Mosque

Entry to the Bazar

More Gold

More of the Bazar

Cafe in the Bazar

The Grand Yavuz Hotel lobby

haggling over inflated prices, we headed for the Grand Yavus Hotel, a warm shower and an early night... midnight...

Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Pergamum and Troy in Turkey

After a short bus ride from the city of Bermaga, we caught a cable car to the top of a mountain to see the ancient city of Pergamum (Pergamos) (3rd church listed in Rev 1.11.) This was the place where Satan's throne is (Rev 2.13). The phrase has been referred to the complex of pagan cults of Zeus, Athena, Dionysus and Asclepius, established by the Attalid kings, that of Asclepius Soter (the Saviour, healer) being of special importance. These cults are illustrative of worship. This was where the worship of the divine emperor had been made the touchstone of civic loyalty under Domitian. It marked a crisis for the church in Asia. Antipas (vs 13) is probably cited as the representative (perhaps the first) of those who were brought to judgement and execution here for their faith.

After the mountain experience we headed down to the Asclepius' healing centre. The centre had everything including a theatre, water treatment rooms and accommodation. The Asclepius healing centre was like an upmarket medical centre, except if you could not walk into the centre by yourself, one was not admitted. The walking in under your own steam was deliberate so people would not die in the treatment centre but be healed. It was very much a psychological / spiritual centre, very closely linked with worship in Pergamum, clearly visible on the hill.

We left Bermaga and headed for the ancient city of Troy. Troy is legendary in Greek mythology. It appears that there were 9 Troys. over the years they were destroyed and rebuild. The Troy story is interesting but little to see except for lots of foundations made out of mud and rock bricks of various Troy cities through the ages.