Laodicea

Laodicea for me was a very special place.  It was here that I heard about the Council of Laodicea held in the 4th Century.  It was one of the earliest church councils that started to assemble the biblical canon and it also began to insist on the use of a special place (the ambo).  In fact, as picture above, you can see the diagram of what one of the first ambos looked like.  The foundation is actually still there.  You can see above a newer building housing an archeological find.  That was an artisan's reconstruction of what the original church at Laodicea may have looked like and the actual remains of the church on the inside of that new building.  It was really fascinating.  The amazing thing was I had this whole place to myself.  There was no one there!  Lots of people go to Parmukkale and to Hierapolis but no one goes to Laodicea right next door.  The other really cool thing that I rented an economy car just to roam around town to the sites.  I was expecting a Yugo and they gave me a BMW!  I was cruising in style!  I felt badly that I visiting the tomb of St. Philip, the Apostle driving a BMW.  I'll have to go to confession for that one but it wasn't a mortal sin - I didn't choose it I was only complicit in it!