Athens, Greece. This is the north side of the acropolis at night. Visible and lighted in the center is the first temple built there, often called the Temple of Erectheon, because it was built in stages and dedicated to many of the gods.

Sunday, January 18; Athens

We had an entire day in ancient Athens and the National Archaeological Museum! With a quick spin to the Olympic Stadium we were headed to the Temple of Zeus. At the acropolis there are many buildings dedicated to the mythological gods, like the Nike Temple, the Parthenon, and the Erechtheion. On Mars Hill we read Paul’s defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the agora we looked for the inscription dedicating a statue to the “unknown god.” Who remembered we had already seen the inscription at the Istanbul museum? The reconstructed stoa in the commercial agora is as impressive as the artifacts in the museum. The changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was observed when the transition from Sunday daytime to Sunday nighttime uniforms was made. The decorative shoes weigh twelve pounds each.

Monday, January 19; Corinth, Cenhrea, Isthmia

Because of the Corinthian Canal the Peloponnesus is technically an island. A road-bridge keeps the two connected. The drive to the Byzantine, Venetian, and Turkish gates of the Acrocorinth is awe-inspiring. From the top the view of the Gulf of Corinth is impressive. A tour of the museum was accomplished with haste but not without seeing the mantle with menorahs, the inscription that says “synagogue of the Hebrews,” and a bust of Nero, who was Emperor about the time Paul was in Corinth. In the agora there is a view up to the Acrocorinth. The 2500 year old monolithic columns of the Temple of Apollo are the oldest in Greece and still standing. Paul appeared before the Roman governor Gallio at the historic bema seat. The harbor at Cenchrea was ideal for wading and rock skipping. We couldn’t run fast enough to reach Isthmia on a Monday so we headed back to Syntagma (Constitution) Square in Athens.

Tuesday, January 20; Ostia Antica, Catacombs

Departure from the hotel was ahead of time. Arrival at the airport was on time. Our flight was delayed and our arrival in Rome late requiring an adjustment in the schedule. After gathering our luggage we drove the short distance to the port city of Ostia Antica. Our guide reconstructed the entire city piece by piece with vivid explanations and readings from ancient texts. Here, to the bones of the ancient times was added sinew and flesh, and a little “garum.” Time didn’t permit us to get all the way to the synagogue but we saw it from the bus on the road that was once the coastline. We walked a two mile portion of the Appian Way that is wide and flat, lined with imposing walls that guard large estates and farmland. Exploring one of seven miles in the tunnels of the San Sebastiano Catacomb we saw mosaics, mausoleums, and ancient graffiti. We slept through an historic moment in American politics tonight.

This monastery in Meteora is named “Holy Trinity” and dates to the 1460s. It is built in the cruciform style on top of the rock formations a thousand feet or more above the valley below.

Wednesday, January 14; Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessaloniki

The Lion statue at Amphipolis still guards the Strymon River but no one knows why. We were kept high and dry in our first visit to Apollonia. The farmer didn’t want us tracking his rain soaked top soil into the bus. At St. Demetrios Church in Thessalonica the Roman Bath underneath the church where Demetrios was imprisoned and martyred was closed. Many of the ruins in the agora were not there. They must have been taken by a thief in the night. It rained while we toured the redesigned museum.

Thursday, January 15; Vergina, Veria (Berea), Dion

Vergina is home to the “Great Tumulus” where Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, is buried. From the outside, the tomb appears like an oversized baseball pitcher’s mound. The mosaic mural at Berea commemorates Paul’s Macedonian call and his teaching the noble-minded. In the center are the steps that led to the Jewish Synagogue’s bema seat. Between the Aegean Sea and Mt. Olympus is Dion. Among the archaeological ruins is a temple dedicated to Zeus and the twelve deities of Greek mythology. Soldiers in antiquity would come here to offer sacrifice to Zeus and the other gods for their assistance and protection in battle. It is possible Dion is where Paul boarded a ship for Athens after being chased out of Berea, however the Bible doesn’t explicitly say.

Friday, January 16; Meteora, Thermopylae

There are two noticeable oddities at Meteora. From the ground the spectacular natural sandstone pillars seem as if they are suspended in the air. From above you can see the entire valley, called the Plain of Thessaly. We visited two monasteries, the Holy Trinity and St. Stephen. The six remaining inhabited monasteries built on their lofty perches have no more than 10 occupants each. Back in the valley, we saw a demonstration of the meticulous work involved in Byzantine Iconography. Wood-carved, stencil-drawn, hand-painted, gold-leafed icons filled the shelves of the store conveniently located next to the “factory.” The Battle of Thermopylae was fought by the invading Persians and an alliance of Greek city-states, including King Leonidas I of Sparta in 480 B.C. Xerxes was the king of Persia. In the Bible book of Esther Xerxes is called Ahasuerus. This battle is not recorded in the Bible but historically took place between Esther 1:22 and 2:1.

Saturday, January 17; Delphi

The world’s most famous Oracular Temple is at Delphi and considered the “navel of the earth.” Here seekers would find the will of the mythological deities through the use of hallucinating gasses escaping from below the surface of the earth. As Fate would have it, a prophetess miraculously appeared answering several questions in typical nonsensical phraseology. This was the world view most Gentile Christians in the first century would have originally held. We got a first look of the Parthenon in Athens at night.

Sunrise at Assos, Turkey. Adramyttian Harbor near our hotel.

Saturday, January 10 ; Pergamum, Adramyttian

The steepest (and most treacherous) theater in the Roman Empire is at Pergamum. We learned a little about the ancient healing practices of the Asclepius there. Once you pass the physical exam you get a room, have access to the library, hear voices while walking in a dark tunnel, bathe, and play games. Don’t take photos of the military base next to the site or you will be sick and walk through another long tunnel. The largest and best preserved red brick building in Turkey is called the Red Basilica. A basilica is not necessarily a church building. Our hotel was down the steep seaward side of a hill at the water’s edge (would there be another “don’t get too close warning”?) known as the Adramyttian Gulf. The small hamlet has old stone houses that now serve as inns and restaurants. The sunset on the water was beautiful.

Sunday, January 11; Assos, Alexandria Troas, Apollo Smintheon, Troy

On our last full day in Turkey we were at the acropolis of Assos led by the retired guard who worked for the archaeologist. While Paul walked from Assos to Alexandria Troas, we took a bus. Maybe that is why Paul had the vision of a man in Macedonia calling for help. Rats!, there was time to only drive past Apollo Smintheon. Troy was at one time believed to be mythical, but Heinrich Schliemann’s excavation proved Homer’s account in the “Iliad” to be accurate (which set in motion most modern archaeology). It is not true that, upon identifying Troy, Schliemann said, “don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth.”

Monday, January 12; Çanakkale, Gallipoli, Alexandroupolis, Kavala (Neapolis)

Early in the morning our bus boarded the first ferry of the day to cross the Dardanelles at Çanakkale. As we drove toward Greece’s border we listened to the history of the massive slaughter in the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I. The hand-off came in two parts. Before the border we changed buses. At the border we checked out, crossed the river border (the Meric River in Turkey, the Evros River in Greek). Now prepared for Greece, our first stop was Alexandroupolis where we discussed the island of Samothrace, exchanged money to Euros, and ate lunch (gyros). After arriving in Kavala (ancient Neapolis) we hiked a portion of the Egnatian Way, the ancient Roman road that Paul walked to Philippi.

Tuesday, January 13; Kavala (Neapolis), Philippi

Most of the Kavala museum we wanted to see was closed for renovation. The Church of St. Nicholas has a mural commemorating Paul’s arrival in Europe. Walking led us past the Kamares aqueduct, rebuilt by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century. Suleiman also built the walls that currently surround Old City Jerusalem. The ancient harbor is now used to dry-dock small ships for repair. Philippi has well preserved ruins (is that an oxymoron?). The Baptistry of Lydia is near the Gangitis River where Paul would have met with the Jewish ladies. The theater was converted to accommodate gladiatorial combat in the 2nd century A.D. The remains in the agora span several centuries demonstrating use and reuse of the space. The hole-in-the-ground identified as the jail is just beyond the Egnatian Way. The acropolis provides a grand view of the ancient Roman city and the (even older) battlefield where Cassius and Brutus were defeated by Octavian and Marc Antony, setting the course for the Roman Empire.