Turkish Tea Party

Yesterday we celebrated the conclusion of our geography study on Turkey with a Turkish "tea party". We invited Oma, Zane and one of Lilly's friends whom we affectionately call "Tickle". Oma and Zane arrived a little late but still experienced the Turkish Delights and Black Tea. Remember Edmond in the movie Narnia? He couldn't quit eating the Turkish Delights given to him by the Ice Queen.

Lilly made the Black Tea, a favorite in Turkey. We purchased the Turkish Delights at World Market. They were like powdered sugar coated gummies with a tiny seed in the middle. We still don't know what the seed was. I'm assuming it added a little flavor. These Turkish Delights were actually made in Istanbul, Turkey which is located on the Bosphorous Strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marma which lies on the west coast of Turkey. On the eastern side of Turkey lies Mount Ararat which is the supposed resting place of Noah's ark.

Turkey is not only historically significant it is also a fascinating place. Turkey is famous for beautiful rugs called Kilim's, whirling Dervishes, beehive houses, Cleopatra's gate and even Swimming Cats called van kedi's in Turk. Biblically significant places include Mount Ararat, the ancient city of Ephesus; home of the Ephesians. The Tigris & Euphrates rivers begin in Turkey. The Garden of Eden is believed to possibly be in Turkey somewhere north of these two famous rivers. (Genesis 2:10,14). The Hagia Sophia built by the Christian Roman Emperor Justinain in 537 A.D. contains 30 million tiny gold tiles and is now one of the most famous places in Turkey to visit. Just watch the videos in the link included with this post to get a taste of this beautiful land... quite possibly the birth place of the human race!

We Finally Have a World Map!

I finally bought a very large world map. I looked and looked all over the internet and could never decide on the "perfect" map. Hmmm.... is there such a thing as perfect? I was in Office Max, saw the large rolled up world and United States maps bundled together for $6.95 and decided... perfect-o! Up until now we've used Google Earth and small maps provided with our texts.

We rolled out the huge World Map and located our geographical points of study. On current versions of world maps this area is Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel. We found Turkey....check. Where was Israel?.... Israel?....Israel?---Whoa! Look at how small it is compared to the rest of the world! Oh my.... look at where it is compared to the rest of the world's land masses. Hmmm... pretty interesting! None of this was in our books we are using to study geography and history. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. You can click on each picture to enlarge them. To quote one of the books we're studying. "...the Israelites left a legacy unlike any other in the world. Instead of riches, knowledge, or fine art, their legacy was a religious one. Thousands of years later, people across the world would know about the Israelites' God."--Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors.