flying abraham to end of turkey

Urfa in the southeast is said to be Abrahams birthplace and the legend goes that when challenging king Nemrud young Abraham was catapulted from the castle to the pyre to be burnt. But God saved him by turning the fire into a lake and the pieces of coal into fishes - which are till today swimming in the pool and growing bigger and bigger - and who would dare to eat them turns blind instantly :-).


Our next stop was the world heritage site Mount Nemrut, where a certain king Nemrut (the same guy??) created his impressive burial place. It is a heap of stones (in turkish tümülüsü - my new favourite word) right on top of the highest mountain, surrounded by big giant heads. We went there to watch an awesome sunrise and to be amazed by the natural beauty God created. See the ecstatic expressions on our faces??

Galatasaray is şampiyon!!!!
And Hajo became a local hero by joining the celebrations (including dancing...). We kind of had to pretend that we like futbol and are well informed about german teams -can somebody keep us updated???

And finally we arrived at the last turkish city on our way to Syria: Antakya, which maybe sounds more familiar as Antiochia how it was called earlier. It was in that place where Paul started his legendary mission trips. That also means that the church of Antiochia was the first sending church in history and this very successfully. I guess we still need more of that kind...
We made our pilgrimage to St Peters Church, said to be the first meeting place of the church there. It is a natural cave - honestly much nicer than the one in Rome...

r u h