Today was spent in and around Antalya. Today was another big picture day. I took a bit more than 900 pictures today, but this is not the most I have taken in a day on the trip. Yesterday I took just over 1,000 pictures. Since I left on the journey I have taken more than 7,000 pictures.

Now to distill today into just a few pictures.

We started the day by visiting Perge. Most of the ruins that we saw today date from the first couple of centuries after Christ. We walked down the same streets that Paul would have walked on.

The picture above shows the main street through Perge. My friend Sharon and I climbed up above the ruins to take this overhead view. In the distance you can barely see the Hellenistic gate which would have been there during the time Paul traveled through Perge.

I have many more pictures of Perge which will be shared in future posts.

On the way out of Perge we stopped to see the ruins of the Roman Stadium. This stadium is one of the two best preserved stadiums. Across from the stadium was a large theater. We all wanted to visit the theater, but it has been closed for renovations for the last 15 years.

In Antalya we went to look at Hadrian’s Gate. The gate was built in 131-132 AD. The Emperor Hadrian entered into Attalia through this gate when he visited Pamphylia.

After a nice lunch in the square behind our hotel we went to the Antalya Museum. This museum is one of the best museums in Turkey. I have  been to many National museums, and this rates right up there with them.

This was one of my favorite pictures from the museum. This is the head of the Statue of a Dancing Woman.

You will notice in this picture that two colors of marble were used in the statue. This makes this statue one of the most significant finds at Perge.

I will share more about this statue, including a full figure shot, in a future post.

This picture give a good sense of the atmosphere in the museum. There were large galleries filled with sculpture, architectural structures and sarcophagus.

I wish now that I had backed up more often while taking pictures of statues. I may have taken some great reflection pictures.

After visiting the museum we had some free time before dinner. I walked down to the old harbor with Candy and Sharon.

This boat caught my eye. If you look closely you can see that it is called the Kaptan Acar and you see a picture from the Pirates of the Caribbean. I would title this picture Pirates of the Caribbean on the Mediterranean.

Here I am sitting just outside of the old port of Attalia. This is one of the ports that Paul sailed out of.

After dinner this evening we were treated to an hour long visit with Mark Wilson the author of Biblical Turkey: A Guide to the Jewish and Christian Sites of Asia Minor. We received some great insight into recent discoveries and research in Turkey.

Tomorrow we have an early wake up call and then we will take the bus to the airport. We have an early morning flight to Istanbul which will be the last stop on the tour.

I hope that you have enjoyed a few pictures from my day.

Steven

Make sure you visit my Turkey page to find out more information and for links to the blogs of other tour members. We all have our unique styles and perspectives so visit all of them.