Very Old Things

The prayer area at the Blue Mosque
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On our first whole day in Istanbul, we tried to see as much historical stuff as possible.

Fortunately, the major sites are all located around Sultanhamet Square, so once we took a taxi to the area, we could get around by foot.

We started with Topkapi Palace, which was the home for the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire from somewhere in the 1400s to 1860. The complex is located right over the Bosphorous, which connects the Mediterranean to the Black Sea via the Aegean Sea.

High on a cliff, the compound has a great view, both aesthetically and strategically.

one of the upper in the Blue Mosque. I'm trying to show all the blue in the tiles
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A wall surrounds the entire compound. We entered through a large gate (although apparently not large enough for some tour busses, if you check out the pics) that used to accommodate horses. The outer courtyard housed the bakery, kitchen, and armory. Now the kitchen is an impressive museum of china and silver owned by the various sultans.

Next we entered the inner courtyard through the Felicity Gate, whose beauty was just a beginning to what we would see. Not surprisingly, the Sultans lived very well.

The Blue Mosque
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Since there wasn’t a line, we started with the Treasury. Inside the various rooms opened to the public, there were all kinds of jaw-dropping gems and jeweled clothing and furniture, as well as boxes overflowing with emeralds and diamonds. In the last rooms were a robe and staff owned by Mohammed and in a little corner where I almost missed it was a the arm and skull of St. John the Baptist – a little shocking, since I didn’t realize these things were still around.

After wandering the grounds for a bit, we realized that we needed tickets to see the harem, which admittedly is what we were most curious about. Besides the walkway from the harem to the Imperial Chambers, where the business of the empire was conducted, the harem is a seemingly haphazard arrangement of personal rooms, courtyards, and gathering areas. I was impressed with all the detail everywhere. Every surface was tiled or painted (even the doors), and the floors were all covered with huge carpets. The rooms were all quite large and very, very cold. Most had a fireplace or two, also covered in tiles.

We spent a few minutes watching a very cautious bus driver trying to fit his bus through the outer gate to Topkapi Palace.
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Something really impressive was the Sultan’s bathroom, which was bigger than a few of the houses I’ve lived in. He had three different baths (for hot, cold and tepid) and a toilet room and huge, huge closets. I was quite jealous.

The only other people who lived in Harem were the Sultan’s mother, his wives (he was allowed four), his twelve “favorites,” all the other concubines, and his sons. Once the sons were old enough, they were sent out into the empire to learn to govern. Serving the Sultan and company were the eunuchs, who were all brought from North Africa after being educated and of course, the operation that made them eunuchs.

Felicity Gate, which is the gate to the inner palace yard, where all the cool stuff is.
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On the way from the Palace to the Blue Mosque, a nice Turkish man befriended us and offered to give us a personal tour. Since it was almost prayer time, we had to rush through the square and rip off our shoes to get a view of all the blue tiles. Our friend explained that the mosque was built to compete with the Hagia Sofia, the huge church across the Square. Unfortunately they couldn’t make the dome any bigger, so they compensated by adding six minarets and many domes and semi-domes in perfect proportion. I was expecting to be in some kind of dazzling blue wonderland when we entered, but the interior was like most of the other mosques I’ve seen: a big open space with lots of carpets. The domes and semi domes made looking up really captivating, but we had to evacuate for the prayers, so at least my neck wasn’t aching.

The Imperial Chambers. The Sultan sat in a screened balcony above the main conference room to oversee the business at hand.
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Naturally, our “friend” had a hidden agenda in the form of a carpet store, where he wanted to take us to check out his wares. This became a theme, as it seems every nice Turk walking around in Istanbul has some carpets or leather that they want to show you while serving you apple tea. We finally ditched him, and headed over to the Hagia Sofia, which is really the most remarkable historical site in Istanbul and I think the oldest building I’ve ever seen.

So a quick history: Dedicated in 537, the church was built on the grounds of two former churches built in the 4th and 5^th centuries for Emperor Justinian I and was the largest church in the world for almost a millennia. In 1453, it was converted into a mosque after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. Like I said, it’s very, very old with a whole lot of history.

This is one of the ceilings in the Imperial Chambers. It's so ornate your neck starts to hurt.
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Walking through, I mostly couldn’t stop thinking about all the other characters who entered the church over so many years. You’re immediately impressed by how very large it all is, starting with the huge doors you enter through. Your eyes are immediately drawn up to the dome, which is very high and supported by very large pillars and walls and semi domes and arches. The main body of the church is huge (although half of it was full of scaffolding for the ongoing restoration projects.).

Inside the Harem, this is part of the closet in the Mother's Suite. She was the most powerful woman in the empire.
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It is also very beautiful. The detail of the uncovered mosaics takes your breath away. Most were plastered over during the building’s days as a mosque, and the slow, delicate work of scratching the plaster off means that every time you revisit there will be more to see. Most of the ceilings and arches still were either painted or tiled, so you keep glancing up from one to another to check them out. We spent a lot of time just walking around and enjoying the place. There were so many intriguing tiny details everywhere that it’s somewhat overwhelming, but in a grand way.

Hagia Sofia, as seen from Sultanhamet Square.
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We finished our day of history off with some Turkish food (lamb stew and meatballs), bought some leather jackets (eventually you just have to give in) and then headed back to the hotel for a nap.