A Second Trip to Antioch

If you don't recall, I took my first trip to Antioch in November of 2007. I absolutely loved it, and found an excuse to go back this last week. I'm so glad I went! It was a wonderful opportunity to soak up some extra history before I leave, as well as spend time with dear friends in a beautiful setting. I also got to go to the Archeological Museum, which we ran out of time to do last time I went. I particularly wanted to go there because it is known for its collection of mosaics, and boy were there a lot of mosaics! There were 2 large rooms and 3 small rooms full of mosaics, and more in the courtyard outside. Most of them were recovered from that region, though certainly there are mosaics all over Turkey.


Even though I went for the mosaics, I enjoyed the last 2 rooms as well, which featured ancient artifacts from as early as the 3rd millennium BC up through coins from the 17th century. I just love walking through 4000 years of history, knowing that it was all found in the region that I'm standing in. Antioch itself was founded by Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great's four generals who inherited part of his vast empire. The area overall has been in the possession of many empires, including Akkadians, Amorites, Hittites, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Seljuks, Byzantines, and Ottomans. The lion below adorned the steps into an ancient temple, and that blue Egyptian-style bowl was just one of the prettiest ancient artifacts I've seen in a while.



In addition to the museum, we visited some of the sights I saw before, such as the Roman aqueduct and Peter's church, and along the way enjoyed much of the unique Turkish scenery. Some sheep (a common sight here) were kind enough to pose for a picture, a man was selling handmade bayberry soap from the back of his mule, and the sunset on the Med was gorgeous. One of the towns in the area is named Daphne from ancient times because, according to local legend, it was where the river nymph Daphne was changed into a bay tree to escape the unwanted affection of the god Apollo.