Laodicea

Laodicea

Like Hierapolis, Laodicea was huge. It dates from the third century B.C.E. and was named after the founder’s not-yet-ex-wife. It was a banking center, so wealthy that after an earthquake in 60 CE it refused government aid and rebuilt the city themselves. (Not a bad idea, judging from recent history.) John of Patmos didn't think much of their attitude: “You say, ‘I am rich. I have prospered. I need nothing,’” Rev 3:17. It was also a medical center: a salve for the ears was made of nard here, and another for the eyes was produced out of local stone ground fine. We’re told that’s why John recommended they use a little on themselves (Rev 3:18). John also called them “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” I’m sure he wouldn't have been invited to many parties here even if he could have come. It was to the Laodiceans that he said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock….”  But to paraphrase anti-evangelist Hazel Motes: “No man with a good chariot needs to be justified.”

Water feature with calcified pipes

Laodicea had no water source—something interpreters, or at least guides and guidebooks, like to link to John's accusation of being "lukewarm"--not hot like Hierapolis's springs nor cold like Colossae's. it had to import water by means of an aqueduct and terracotta pipes that quickly became calcified inside.  The first thing we saw there was a water feature—some kind of tower covered with pipes, though it was impossible to tell whether it was mainly for show or function.

I admit freely: After five or six ancient cities I find myself just seeking out good camera shots and petting the cats and dogs. I'm re-remembering how overwhelming and confusing it is to see a lot of archaeological wonders in a single day, and the exhausted overload my travelers in Israel face.

That's snow on the mountains behind

Patio Homes with View

Pamukkale Park with View

One thing I miss here so far is the opportunity to talk with residents beyond the tour guide. I’d like to know much more about modern Turkey. Since the people are now Muslim, with an ethos of being “not from here,” I wonder what their relationship to these ghosts of the land’s Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian past is. I also wonder what their relationship to their Muslim present is, especially since the west has become more Islamophobic. At lunch today the person next to me said he had gotten an email from someone back home warning him about Turkey’s “sharia” government. Ugoz the tour guide said it’s nothing like that at all: Society and government are quite secular. That's so well known that even i knew it. Turkey does feel more European than many parts of the Middle East do—in some ways more so than Israel. But this is just an impression after two days.

On the way back we stopped at Pamukkale Park, facing the Cotton Castle we had been on top of in Hierapolis. Stunning. That is not snow--it's rock.

My hotel room's bathtub has a regular water faucet and another one for mineral water for your own private spa. I'm off to try it for awhile before bed.