Turkey/Greece Trip-May 21, 2025 - Perge and Colossae
Perge is mentioned in Acts 13 and 14. On Paul’s first missionary journey, we read only that he passed through after having landed at the port in Antalya and heading through to Antioch near Psidia. When Paul came back through Perge we read that he spoke the word there.
Perge is a beautiful archeological park that highlights Greek and Roman structures. The southern baths and twin towered Hellenistic city gates were there when Paul passed through. He and Barnabus likely left through the NW gate out to the via Sebaste and up to Antioch. We hadn’t made it all the way to the north west end of the ancient city on our other trips - so happy to have seen that section of Perge this time!
Colossae was our first of 3 cities of the Lycus Valley important to us from the Bible (Laodicea and Hieropolis we will visit tomorrow). At the time of the New Testament, this valley was a massive lake. Surface archeological survey work began a few years ago at Colossae. We’ll admit to tremendous disappointment at being behind schedule which meant we only did a distance view of Colossae and were unable to see whether it’s still possible to walk up to the top of the mound. These were prosperous cities on the Silk Road in Paul’s day.
Tomorrow the three of us (plus 12 more from our group) take a hot air balloon ride over the Lycus valley. The 4 am wake up call will be worth it to get a birds eye view of the geography of the valley and position of the biblical cities 🥱!
Some of our group are forgoing the early balloon ride in favor of swimming in the mineral spas of Pamukkale tonight…. More about that tomorrow. Good night and God Bless! PB, Margery and Jacob
The harbor at Antalya
