TURKEY – ISTANBUL – An Old Lady with a Backpack

NOVEMBER 12 – 16, 2024

We had to go to the Turkish side of Cyprus to catch a flight to Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. Our Airbnb had arranged a taxi to pick us up. It was really well organized. He sent a video of which door to exit the airport and where to wait outside. A man approached us, checked our name, then escorted us to the taxi. Best service ever!

We hit rush hour traffic coming in, but that was fine, as I got to take some amazing pictures of the mosques all lit up.

Our Airbnb was situated within a 10 minute walk to all the major sites. We walked through Sultanahmet Square, with its obelisk, serpent column and German Fountain

to HAGIA SOPHIA. The queue to buy tickets was an hour long.

The Mosque is a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, and Turkey as a whole. It was a former church, built in 360. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it served as a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum. In 2020, it once again became a mosque. It is much bigger than I expected. It is 82 m (269 ft) long, 73 m (240 ft) wide, and 55 m (180 ft) high. It has four minarets. It can hold 18,000 people. We were allowed on the mezzanine only. The bottom was solely for prayers.

There are 4 enormous seraphims (angels) on the four pendentives of the dome. They are 6 m (20 ft) high. The face alone is a metre wide. There used to be a mosaic of Christ in the centre of the dome. These seraphims were to protect it. They have 6 wings; 2 covering the feet, 2 covering the face and 2 outstretched, ready to fly.

After the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, all the mosaics and images were covered with plaster or removed due to the Islamic ban against representational images. The seraphim faces were covered with a rosette, like this one, in 1609 and remained so until 2009. Only one face has been uncovered.

There are eight calligraphic roundels suspended around the interior. The 7.5 m (24.6 ft) circular wooden panels are inscribed, with gold gilding, the names of Allah, Mohammed and his two grandsons, and four caliphates. They intended to remove them when the mosque was converted into a museum. However, they couldn’t go through the doors.

The Comnenus mosaic, 13th century, shows Emperor John II (1118–1143) on the left, the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus in the centre, and Empress Irene on the right. Proof that I am a Princess! LOL

Although it went through some major renovations, it was still a work in progress.

The entry ticket to Hagia Sophia included entry to their museum, down the street. Although the ticket was expensive ($75 each) the museum made up for the cost. It was super high tech and very informative. We were kept in a small group. We were given an audio guide and told to make sure it was around our neck and not covered in any way. This was because every time we entered a room, it automatically started, in conjunction with the video presentation. The video presentations told the story of Istanbul and, specifically, Hagia Sophia. It was amazing!

The bottom floor of the museum was filled with artifacts that you would expect to see; like these tiny pieces that were used to make mosaics.

And this arm-shaped reliquary. I don’t know which saint’s arm relic it is supposed to house.

We went to the BLUE MOSQUE. The admission was free to this one, and it was more impressive than Hagia Sophia.

It is smaller than Hagia Sophia at 73 m (240 ft) long, 65 m (213 ft) wide, and 43 m (141 ft) high; but has six minarets. It can hold 10,000 people. It is newer, being built between 1609-1617.

It has a central dome that is surrounded by four semi-domes over the prayer hall. The inside is decorated with thousands of painted floral motifs, predominantly blue, giving the mosque its name.

It was absolutely incredible and breathtaking.

Outside, in the courtyard, we simply enjoyed the beautiful view.

The BASILLICA CISTERN is so named because a great basilica once stood on the spot. Built in 532, it is the largest of several ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul. Although Istanbul is surrounded by water, fresh water lacking. A system of aqueducts and streams brought fresh water from 19 km (12 mi) north of the city to be stored in these underground chambers.

We went down 52 steps from street level into the cistern. It took our breath away.

It is approximately 138 metres (453 ft) by 65 metres (213 ft) – about 9,800 square metres (105,000 sq ft) in area and capable of holding 80,000 cubic metres (2,800,000 cu ft) of water. The ceiling is supported by 336 marble and granite columns, each 9 m (30 ft) high. They are arranged in 12 rows of 28 columns, each spaced 5 m (16 ft) apart. The walls are 4 metres (13 ft) thick and coated with a waterproofing mortar.

The majority of the columns in the cistern had been recycled from the ruins of older buildings, likely brought to Constantinople from various parts of the empire to save time and money in the construction.

The weight of the cistern is carried on the columns by means of the cross-shaped vaults and round arches of its roof.

We walked along the wooden walkway, inches above the water, marveling at the construction and beauty. At the far end of the cistern was a column that had an Medusa face as a base, but it was up-side-down. Apparently, it was placed this way to negate her stone-turning gaze.

TOPKAPI PALACE was completed in 1465. It served as the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire, and was the main residence of its sultans. In 1856, the Sultan decided to move the court to the newly built Dolmabahce Palace. However, Topkapi retained some of its functions, including the imperial treasury, library and mint. After the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, the government decreed that Topkapı be transformed into a museum.

The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, each containing historical artifacts and treasures. One chamber contained only Ottoman clothing,

including this shirt, which took 3 years to make. It is elaborately decorated with prayers to protect the wearer with fortune and good health.

Another, held only weapons and armour.

The Treasury held the Spoonmaker’s Diamond (86 carats) surrounded by 49 smaller diamonds. Legend says that a fisherman found it, and thinking it was only a piece of glass, traded it for 3 wooden spoons.

and Topkapi Dagger (88 carat emeralds)

This throne was decorated with 25,000 pearls.

Some of the rooms were simply for the Sultans to relax

There was also a library.

As I said earlier, there were hundreds of rooms and chambers. Each one was special and beautiful, in its own way.

Nearby, but in the same courtyard, was HAGIA IRENE. Built in 532, it is the oldest known church structure in the city and one of the only Byzantine churches in Istanbul that was never converted into a mosque.

It was built from stone and brick and therefore a good place for storing weapons by the Ottomans after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, until the 19th century.

The Hagia Irene operates as a museum and classical music concert hall, because of the great acoustics and ambiance.

We took a Hop-on bus tour one day and wound up at the NAVAL MUSEUM. There were many Sultan’s galleys (a type of boat) were on display. They were highly decorated with plush cushions

and kiosks (covered booth)

and gold gilding on the hulls.

The top floor had the usual artifacts of weapons, uniforms and navigation equipment. There was one area that covered the Cyprus story. Considering we had just come from Cyprus and heard the Greek and British side of the story, it was interesting and informative, from the Turks perspective. The biggest thing I took away from the display was that each side tries to make themselves look good. And some information is totally wrong. For example, this plaque states that Cyprus was never a Hellenic island. Tell me how the Greek mosaics got to be there, then?

I address the Cyprus conflict in the CYPRUS – NICOSIA blog.

After the naval museum, we walked along to have a peek at Dolmabahce Palace. We felt we had seen the best palace already (Topkapi Palace) so opted not to spend several Euros to see this one.

The Hop-on tour also included a boat cruise along the Bosphorus Strait. We saw many of the same attractions, but from the view off the water. The Buyuk Mecidiye Mosque was especially beautiful.

GALATA TOWER is a medieval Genosese tower that was built in 1348 as a watchtower at the highest point – 61m (200 ft) above sea level. From this elevation, it still dominates the Istanbul skyline. Plus, it is 9 stories – 62.59 m (205.3 ft) tall.

The observation deck is at 51.65 m (169.5 ft) and offered an amazing view of the old city.

An elevator took us up, but we had to walk down, almost hunched over, 146 steps to reach the bottom. Each level had a small exhibit of artifacts.

It has an external diameter of 16.45 m (54.0 ft) at the base, an inside diameter of 8.95 m (29.4 ft), and walls that are 3.75 m (12.3 ft) thick. The tower is now a museum.

The Sirkeci Train Station, otherwise known as the Orient Express Train Station, was built in 1890 by the Oriental Railway as the eastern terminus of the world-famous Orient Express that once operated between Paris and Istanbul in the period between 1883 and 2009. The building was extremely modern for its time, having gas lighting and heating provided by large tile stoves, made in Austria, in winter.

There is still a popular restaurant in the terminal, called The Orient Express.

It had a small railway museum with a few artifacts from the famous train.

We covered a lot of tourist attractions. But we enjoyed a lot of everyday things too. We had fresh pomegranate juice. While we pay an exorbitant amount of money for one pomegranate in Canada, here they literally fall off the trees and are super cheap.