Travelling Pioneers

After going to Cappadocia many times, we have found that the best time of day to see Cappadocia in Turkey is at sunrise when the balloons are just rising. The trick is that the wind must be less than 7mph for this to happen. The best time of day is about 30 minutes before sunrise while it is still dark and the balloons are just firing up. Their plan is to take the tourists up so that they can watch the sun rise over Cappadocia. The Best Time of Day and Place The truth is that you don’t need to spend $300 or more to go up in a balloon yourself. There is a nice high cliff here at the edge of the city where you can watch them from the comfort of gold old terra firma. We recently went, and didn’t even need to be on that cliff. See the video below for the view from the patio of the hotel down in the valley where they launch. The time is just before sunrise when the balloons are starting to fire up. The Top Reasons to Visit Early in the Morning When it comes to seeing the fairy tale landsc

A little off the highway in the Taurus mountains of Turkey we found a lesser known known gem with a connection to the Bible called the Ivriz Rock Memorial. It is located here according to Google Maps, but this is a more precise location. After doing some research, it was surprising to learn that there is a connection to the Bible. This connection is what I want to share. The key to seeing it’s connection is to first of all understand the writing on the relief itself.  What the Rock Relief Shows On the left we see a god named Tarhunas. He has a horned helmet which was a symbol of divinity. He is holding some stocks of wheat in his left hand and grape clusters in the other. Just below his left arm we see a sickle. All of this indicates fertility and prosperity. To the right we see a person of smaller size in relation to this god, indicating inferiority. This is King Warpalawa. Notice that he is standing on a platform and is raising his hands. This is a gesture of worship. The location

Mount Ararat is probably one of the most remote places you can visit in Eastern Turkey. When visiting this place, we used the city of Doğubeyazıt as our home base since it has nice hotels and restaurants.  After being in Turkey for 5 years, I have to say that this area not only has significant sites for believers in the Bible, but some of the oldest history. The bonus is that Doğubeyazıt has delicious food and some cool, quirky sites to visit as well.  Here I want to share with you things that you MUST know and see if you can make it this far into eastern Turkey with the goal of visiting Mount Ararat. Interestingly, Jehovah started life in this area twice! Once in the Garden of Eden and second from Mount Ararat. I wrote another blog about our visit to the nearby possible location of the Garden of Eden here . Mount Ararat sits on the borders of Turkey, Iran and Armenia. It is located just North East of Lake Van, Turkey. Just to borrow a map from the old green Bible, here is it’s approx

Sagalassos, Turkey is an amazing place to see. So to help you, I want to tell you the 24 best things to see when you visit. Or better yet, allow you to sit back and enjoy everything that you would see at the city itself. This is how it’s structured. In this blog I will try to give you four things for each item. A good picture of the site. Tell you what is interesting about it. Show a picture of the actual sign in front of it that explains it (in English, German and Turkish). Show any good photo opportunity spots. Getting to Sagalassos Sagalassos is quite remote in comparison to other ancient cities. We came from Konya, so we decided to span the trip over two days, stopping first in Egirdir . Wow! What an unexpected surprise that was. Besides the beautiful peninsula, there were caves, a castle and stunning views. But alas, I will leave that for another post. Map of Turkey showing Salagassos Distances from Salagassos to: Isparta – 48 km (30 miles) Antalya – 118 km (73 miles) Izmir – 42