Istanbul City Tour

July 26

Today we had booked a walking tour of historic sites in the Old Town section of Istanbul. Our tour started in what used to be the hippodrome (horse square) during ancient times. Our tour guide was Arda, and he started the tour by giving us some information about the city.

Old Town Istanbul used to be called Byzantium in ancient times, and the entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is surrounded by the remnants of Roman walls that extended for 22 kilometers around ancient Byzantium. Old town Istanbul is beautiful and unique. Two obelisks stand in the hippodrome: one is from Karnak Temple in Egypt. The other is of unknown origins. The remnants of the bronze serpent column also stands in the hippodrome. The column was given to Byzantium by the ancient Greeks after a successful battle. Made of three twisted lengths of bronze, the top contained the heads of snakes all pointing in different directions. But there was a period of time when strife and violence was prevalent in Istanbul and the structure was destroyed. Two of the heads are now in museums: one in London and one in Istanbul. The other head has disappeared from history.

 At the other end of the hippodrome is the German Fountain. It was gifted to the city by Kaiser Wilhelm II after his visit there. Our first stop in the tour was at Topkapi Palace. If you plan on going, make sure you have at least three hours to spend there.

                      

There is so much to see. Topkapi was constructed during the reign of Sultan Mehmet II, and was in use by the Ottomans until 1856, when they moved the royal household to Dolmabahçe Palace. The palace has three different gates and four courtyards. Walking towards the first gate, we pass by the Hagia Eirene on our left. A smaller mosque built four years before Hagia Sofia, it means “holy peace”.

To our right is the Fountain of Ahmed the Turk. The first gate of Topkapi is called “the gate of rulership”. Topkapi can hold up to 5,000 people. Off of the first courtyard there is a weapons room and a clock room that has SO many different types of Ottoman clocks. Charisse was fascinated by the weapons room. 

 

The second gate is called the "Gate of Salutation" and has European style towers installed by Sulieman. The columns in the palace contain materials from Greece, Egypt, and the Marmara region of Türkiye. Our guide leads us through the many rooms, halls, and courtyards of the palace. Honestly, there are too many to remember them all. But everywhere we go we see the blue tiles for which Türkiye is famous.

 We then go to the eunuch's quarters, where there is a temple, and a hammam, along with the living and sleeping quarters. The eunuch's rooms are right before we get to the harem. In Islam "harem" means "a holy place where not everyone is allowed to enter". These were the quarters of the royal family. The rooms of the harem are expansive. There were rooms for the sultan, his wives, his mother, and his siblings. They had private kitchens, and a long hallway with a stone banquette where the servants would place their food. The harem at Topkapi was initially constructed during the reign of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and expanded during the time of Sultan Murad III. We also tour the dormitories where the Sultan's personal soldiers lived before being allowed to explore on our own for the next hour. 

View of Anatolia from Topkapi

Huge swimming pool

                                                      

    

                                      

Our second stop of the day was the Blue Mosque. Because today is Friday, we were not able to get into the mosque until 2pm, which is why we did not start here. Friday at noon is the only time Muslims MUST come to a mosque to pray. Any other time they can pray at home. The Blue Mosque is actually called the Sultan Ahmet Mosque and is unique because it has six minarets. It is the only Ottoman mosque that has six. The typical mosque has two. Only a sultan could build a mosque with more than two minarets. A mosque built by a sultan usually has four. It is called the Blue Mosque because of the more than 20,000 hand painted blue tiles that decorate the walls. Many of the tiles have a tulip design because it was a flower native to the area. Later the flower was exported to the Netherlands. Inside the Blue Mosque there are eight circular plaques with inscriptions. They are for Allah, the prophet Muhammed, the two grandsons of Muhammed, and the four caliphs. The narrow staircase/ tower inside the mosque is where the imam sits to call the prayer. 

                       

                       

We ended the day at the Hagia Sofya. We did not go inside the Hagia Sofya but learned a little about the history. Constructed between AD 532- 537, it was originally built as an orthodox church.  It then became a Catholic church, then a mosque, then a museum, and now it is an active mosque again.  For a while it was the largest religious structure in the world. Both Hagia Sofya (holy wisdom) and Hagia Eirene (holy peace) are dedicated to Jesus. If I ever get back to Istanbul, I would definitely like to go inside the Hagia Sofya.