Laodicea

After exploring Pamukkale and Hierapolis, we went to Laodicea. It was my second time to see that area. 

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” -Revelation 3:14-22

We talked about this passage while at Laodicea. The letter calls the Laodiceans out for being lukewarm. The Laodiceans would have known this reference all too well. You can see the white castle of Pamukkale from Laodicea. There the hot waters flow and are believed to have healing properties. There are even pipes at Laodicea where they had water piped to them from the hills. In nearby Colossae there were rivers with cool waters for drinking. By the time the waters reached Laodicea, they would have been lukewarm, no longer good for healing, and no good for drinking. The letter also mentions eye salve and it is said Laodicea had a school of medicine and had created both eye and ear salves. 

You know, just hanging out on an ancient column capital.

Rebuilding an old church

Temple to Artemis, Apollo, and Aphrodite. Church is just
to the right. It's crazy to think how close these two were.

The white speck in the distance is Pamukkale from
which the thermal waters came.

One of the amphitheaters at Laodicea

Puzzle pieces for archaeologists.

As we wrapped up our time in Laodicea, I still had not purchased a bus ticket to get back home. Since I was planning on heading home after Laodicea, I checked my favorite bus company and discovered the buses were full until about 7 hours later. Again, this country is changing me. In America, I would never have went somewhere without finalizing plans and things like bus tickets before leaving. 

My kind friends dropped me off at the bus station. Luckily I know a family who lives in that city so I thought that in the worst case scenario, I could stay with them. I arrived at the ticket counter and discovered they had added a bus going to my city since there was such a high demand but it didn’t leave for another two hours. I checked at a couple other counters and finally found a less known company with a ticket leaving half an hour later. I bought that ticket and stopped off at the bathroom. I found my bus and it definitely wasn’t luxurious but I had a seat and I would be home soon.

I was in the seat behind the driver. His seat had shocks and every time he would hit a bump, he’d bounce high in the air. It looked extremely uncomfortable. This particular bus made a lot of stops. At one point we stopped to pick up 2 women and later I saw them standing in the aisle. I wondered why on earth they were standing and finally realized it’s because all the seats were full. I’ve seen normal city buses with standing folks but never on the city-city buses. We stopped about 20 minutes later. Some folks had reached their final destination freeing up seats for those ladies. I was thankful I had my own seat for the whole trip.