Our study tour departed from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for an overnight flight to Istanbul, Turkey.

We arrived in Istanbul and began our tour of this fascinating city. We spent the day seeing the city's highlights: the Topkapi Palace, the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Hippodrome and the Istanbul Museum.

We also got the chance to see how Turkish rugs were made. Best of all, we had dinner with some Missionaries to Turkey and learned how the Gospel is being spread in this land that is over 98% Muslim.

Istanbul has much to offer for geography and history buffs alike. It is one of those rare places on earth that straddles two continents. The eastern portion of the city lies in Asia with the western portion in Europe. Taken as a whole, in all probability it is the most populous city of Europe.

The city was founded by Greek colonists under King Byzas in the 7th Century BC. For many years, the city would carry his name and be called Byzantium. Superbly located at the mouth of the Bosporus Straits, ancient mariners would have to pass through when traveling back and forth between the Mediterranean and Black Seas. This brought about considerable wealth. In the 2nd Century BC, Rome conquered the area and added this valuable prize to its empire. In 306 AD, Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire here - shortly afterwards, it came to be known as Constantinople. The city walls built at this time can still be seen to this day.

The 5th Century AD brought tremendous upheaval to the Roman Empire. Barbarians conquered the western half of the Roman Empire. The eastern half maintained its capital in Constantinople and became known as the Byzantine Empire. While the West was dominated by the Roman Catholic Church based out of Rome, the East was dominated by the Orthodox Church based out of this Byzantine capital. In 532 AD, riots destroyed the city. It was rebuilt, and many outstanding structures (such as Hagia Sophia as seen to the left) testify to the heights Byzantine culture reached. What made the city so desirable (namely its location for trade and transport), was also its undoing. For the next millennium Persians, Arabs, nomadic tribes, and even the Crusaders attacked at one time or another.

In 1453, the Ottoman Turks lead by Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople. With this, Islam finally wrestled control over the area and Islamic culture was swept into power as the mainstay. Many churches such as Hagia Sophia were converted into mosques. Soon the city was renamed Istanbul, which interestingly enough is a Greek word meaning 'I am a citizen'. With Istanbul as its capital, the Ottoman Empire would dramatically enlarge its territory through one military campaign after another. Ottoman rule finally came to a close after being defeated by British and Australian forces during the great Middle Eastern campaigns of World War I. In 1923, the Republic of Turkey was born and for the first time in over 1500 years, the city no longer served as a capital. Today, its population stands at over 12 million.

For the purposes of our study tour, the most important part of the trip to Turkey involved a visit to the Archeology Museum. This is because there is a good deal of evidence for the accuracy of Scripture found here.

The Siloam Inscription
In 1880 the above inscription was found in Jerusalem, some 30 feet or so from the Pool of Siloam. It was found near the mouth of a water tunnel that had been discovered only a few decades earlier by American archeologist and Bible scholar, Edward Robinson. Carved into the tunnel walls, the inscription read:

"The tunneling was completed... While the hewers wielded the ax, each man toward his fellow... there was heard a man's voice calling to his fellow... the hewers hacked each toward the other, ax against ax, and the water flowed from the spring to the pool, a distance of 1,200 cubits..."

Excavators cut the rock bearing this inscription out of the tunnel's walls and brought it to Istanbul during the Ottoman reign. Today we know both the tunnel and the inscription date to just before 701BC. The tunnel is in fact the very one built by Judah's King Hezekiah and enabled Jerusalem to withstand a siege by the Assyrian army under King Sennacharib.

This tunnel is mentioned in the Bible (see II Kings 20:20 and II Chronicles 32: 30). The existence of the tunnel as well as this inscription, serve to testify to the accuracy of Scripture.

Reliefs from the Ishtar Gates of ancient Babylon can also be seen in the Istanbul Archeological Museum.

It could very well be that as Daniel and Ezekiel were led captive to Babylon, they might have laid their eyes on these very reliefs (seen above in a restored condition).

The oldest documented treaty found anywhere in the world is to be found here. Known as the Kadesh Treaty, this lays out terms for trade and peace between Ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire. This also has significance for us as students of the Bible for Scripture speaks of the existence of the Hittites. For many years, skeptics of the Bible complained that there was no proof that the Hittites ever even existed. This treaty proves otherwise:

After an eventful first day, we boarded our plane for a late night flight to Tel Aviv and the Holy Land.