Turkey/Greece Trip May 20, 2025 - Lystra
"They (Paul and Barnabus)...fled unto the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derby..." Acts 14:6
A long day for our bus driver today as we worked our way out of Cappadocia and back into the Biblical areas of Galatia and Pamphilia. We drove to the Lystra tell (acropolis mound) which is bordering the Taurus mountains and pretty well in the middle of nowhere. Very beautiful drive!
The mound now has a fence all around at about the halfway point up - this wasn’t there when we visited in 2021. Excavations have begun here and some exciting things have been found. In the general press (not an academic article) a 1st c AD Roman structure has been mentioned, a basilica with gold guiding still visible on the walls and residential areas. Our guides had a Turkish ministry approval to fly the drone here, but the excavation head and the police quickly arrived (VERY quickly considering we were in the middle of nowhere). They ended up insisting that our guide’s footage be deleted because they haven’t published excavation reports yet. Our first international incident and it ended well.
A long drive along the route Paul would have taken coming back down to Antalya and the port from the Lystra / Derbi / Iconium area. We are staying on Mediterranean Sea in Antalya tonight. The view from the hotel dining room is of the Sea and the lights of Antalya on the opposite side of the bay.
Tomorrow we will visit the remains of the port here in Antalya where Paul and Barnabus came after their travels in Cyprus and we will follow their route up to Perge.
Praying everyone at home is well! God bless,
PB, Margery and Jacob
The Lystra Huyuk (tell / mound - acropolis of the ancient city)
