Pergamon was a large city of approximately 100,000 in apostolic times. It’s about 70 miles NW of Izmir which was called Smyrna back then. Following John’s apocalyptic letter to Smyrna, comes his letter to Pergamon. “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword: I know where you are living, where satan’s throne is.”

Satan’s throne is probably a reference to the Roman temple to Caesar, located on the highest level of the city. On our guide Mehmet’s map the highest level is on the upper left, with descending levels towards the lower right. Mehmet’s finger is pointing to the theater, a very steep series of steps on the side of the mountain.

Sister Heloise read John’s letter to us in each of the apocalyptic towns we visited:
“Yet you are holding fast to my name, and you did not deny your faith in me even in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where satan lives.”

This is what’s left of the Trajaneum, the Roman temple started under the Emperor Trajan, which served as place of worship for the old god Zeus as well as to the emperor himself. A Christian martyr like Antipas would have seen this as “the place where satan lives.”

“But I have a few things against you: ... Repent then. If not, I will come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of my mouth. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.” [Acts 2, 12-17]

From the archeological site, we descended the mountain and toured a carpet factory in Pergamum. Hand woven Persian carpets are quite expensive due to the time consuming work of placing and cutting each knot of colored fabric. All the ladies who worked there seemed quite content as they attended to their ever patient task of figuring out what color yarn goes in which slot.

From Pergamon we hit the road again for a three hour drive to the final apocalyptic church site at Akhisar. The present day city of Akhisar is built over the ruins of the biblical city of Thyatira. Archeologists in 1974-75 were given one city block to unearth what they could find of this biblical center of industry and commerce. What they found was a Roman road flanked by a hundred pillars with Ionian and Korinth style heads.


The largest ruin on this site is of a 2nd to 6th century basilica, whose wall can be seen to my right as I examine some decorative stones which in my imagination could fit well as flower pots at the monastery of Marylake. In the background you can see houses in the city of Akhisar that surrounds this historic block of old Thyatira.

From Thyatira we got back on our bus and headed to the busy city of Bursa to spend the night.

The Green Mosque of Bursa was the first mosque we visited in Turkey. In its day it was perhaps the grandest mosque, but would later be outdone by the huge Blue Mosque built in Istanbul to rival Istanbul’s famous Hagia Sophia. Outside this mosque I saw the largest and oldest Sycamore trees I’d ever seen. Our Texas hill country Sycamores are but teenagers compared to the century old sycamores of Bursa.

David Garcia here stands in the “Poor Room” of the Green Mosque. The niches in the wall are for the poor pilgrims to place their shoes while here for prayer. They are also given some food to sustain them on their journey home. The prayer rugs each have a pointed end where the head goes facing Mecca in the East.

This is the only picture I took of our tour bus which took us from Kudasai to Istanbul. It is sitting on the street of Bursa outside the Green Mosque. In the background you can see the mountains that surround this large city. Also note the cobblestone walkway leading to the mosque and the red mushroom shaped obstacles that keep automobiles from entering the Green Mosque plaza.

Nicea’s 4th century church has the same name as the great basilica in Istanbul: Santa Sophia, or Holy Wisdom. Some architectural modifications were made after the great earthquake in 11th century, but basically what we see here is a church from the time period of the Council of Nicea in 325. When the Roman Empire fell apart in 395, Byzantines developed Nicaea, building churches, cisterns and water canals. When the Selnik Turks conquered the city they made Nicea their first capital, and added the minaret seen here to the left of the front door of the church.

The prominent feature of the church’s sanctuary is the Synthronon (seats for the bishops). These “bleachers” can be seen behind and to the right of this tour group that arrived just before we did. The second Council of Nicea was assembled here in 787. It’s importance is overshadowed in church history by the first council of Nicea because of the importance of the first council’s work in defining the nature of the Son as equal to the Father. Both were equally divine. That’s the meaning of that theological term “consubstantial.”

Our little group gathered in this section of the church to pray the Nicene creed. It is a creedal formula of faith shared by the mainline Christian churches. As a young man I was surprised and deeply moved when attending an Episcopalian Mass to learn that they too prayed the Nicene creed just as we Catholics did. When we got to the line, “We believe in the one holy Catholic and apostolic church,” I was reminded that they too were Catholic. We call ourselves “Roman Catholic" to distinguish ourselves from the "Anglican Catholics."

At the entrance to the plaza of the church in Nicea, we took advantage of the public bath room set up there in a corner of the plaza. On one side we saw this bedroom behind a curtain, and learned that was where this lady whom we met at the entrance to the “W.C.” lived. The lady was befriended by our tour leader Margarita. Her job is to monitor access to the toilets and see that they are kept clean.

When we left Nicea, we boarded a ferry that took us across the Sea of Marmara. As we departed the southern shore, this bow of the ferry boat was filled with people, but as the ferry continued it’s rather lengthy journey across the sea, the cold wind (it was April) drove most tourists to take shelter inside. As we neared the mooring at Kartal, only the brave (or foolish) remained on the bow’s bench.

We are now nearing the north shore, and will be only an hour’s drive into Istanbul. Our thoughts of arriving early at our Istanbul hotel and relaxing after a long days’ drive from Bursa were soon to be shattered by the 4:00 pm traffic in Turkey’s largest city.