Sep 22, Istanbul

We began our day with a visit to the Blue Mosque.  The Blue Mosque is an active mosque that sits about 100 yards away from the Hagai Sofia (church-mosque museum) that we visited yesterday.  Both the Blue Mosque and the Sofia sit within the walls of the old city Constantinople.  The Blue Mosque was a grand project of one of the Ottoman's great sultans in the early 1600s.  It is incredibly beautiful with its grand architecture.

Inside the Blue Mosque...

We got out of there just before the crowd hit:

Next, we toured Istanbul's famous modern markets of the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market, still inside of the old Constantinople city walls.

The Grand Bazaar:

The Grand Bazaar is on of the world's largest covered market shopping locations, encompassing many many street blocks and over 4000 shops.  Thank goodness we just walked through for only 15 minutes!

Then the Spice Market....

Next, we visited another museum that was once a church-turned-monastery before it became a  museum.  In this monastery were preserved many tile mosaics on the ceilings and walls that tell the story of Jesus Christ life and ministry.  These mosaics were often used for education and learning when there were no books or written sources to study in the early christian years.  People learned by referring to these mosaics and telling the stories.

This next picture is of a mosaic with the virgin Mary in the middle with Jesus in her womb.

In these next two pictures, the paintings in this chamber teach of the final resurrection.  No tile mosaics were used in this chamber. Jesus is in the middle and Adam is on the left with Eve (in red) is on the right, symbolizing the completion of God's redemption story of mankind.   That's Sam and Jonathan in the picture.

Today was the last day in Istanbul.  Here is the picture of the old city wall of ancient Constantinople. 

This evening, we flew from Istanbul to Izmir (which is ancient Smyrna of Revelation 2:8).  It was a about a 1 hr flight within Turkey, but we are now on the Asia continent.  

I am here in Izmir for one night.  Tomorrow, we will be visiting the first few churches of the seven churches in Revelation:  Smyrna, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.  Read ahead in Revelation 2 and 3, and join me tomorrow!

Good night, everyone!

Ying

Sent from my iPad