Adventures in Istanbul - out touring

Today, with the PISA meeting all wrapped up, the Turkish Ministry of Education turned on the grand tour of Istanbul for us. With the weather overcast and cold, we set off in buses early so as to avoid the papal entourage again. And what a day they had planned for us!
First stop was the Sultanahmet area and the Hippodrome. Sultanahmet is the heart of Byzantium, Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire. The Hippodrome was the centre of Byzantium's life for 1000 years and then of the Ottomans for another 400. It was sacked by the soldiers of the fourth crusade in 1204. It's heady to stand here and imagine chariots racing around the streets, instead of the packs of dogs there now chasing every car that moves, particularly police cars! In the middel of the Hippodrome is the Obelisk of Theodosius, carved in Egypt around 1450BC. The Byzantine emporer Theodosius had it brought to Constantinople in 390AD, and erected on a marble pedestal engraved with scenes of his own life and times.

Next stop was the famous Blue Mosque. This was built by Sultan Ahmet in the 1600s, and it was built to surpass the beauty of the nearby Aya Sophia. It is the only mosque outside Mecca to have 6 minarets, and the courtyard is the biggest of all the Ottoman mosques. Inside there are tens of thousands of blue tiles, hence it's name, and more than 250 windows.


Next stop on our tour was the Aya Sophia. This was built by the Emporer Justinian in about 530.

It was constructed on Byzantium's acrpolis, which had been the site of two earlier churches, one built by Constantine's son in 360 and another built by Theodosius in 415 and destroyed in riots in 532. This one's clearly doing better! The Byzantine emporers were crowned here. It was the the greatest church in Christendom until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, when Mehmet the Conqueror took posession of it for Islam and converted it into a mosque.
It is highly significant for both Muslims and Christians, and recognising this, Attaturk proclaimed it a mueum in 1934. It is being restored. Originally, the dome's interior was lined with more than 30 milllion gold mosaic tiles,and the 30m dome is supported by 40 ribs constructed of special hollow bricks, resting on four huge pillars which are concealed in the walls.

The Christian mosaics depicting Jesus and Mary were plastered over when it was converted to a mosque - these are in the process of being restored, and thetotal effect is fantastic. Outside the museum are some tombs - that of Selim (the Sot!) and five of his sons, murdered on the same night in 1574 to ensure the peaceful succession of his oldest son Murat III, and the graves of 19 of Murat's sons murdered in 1595 to ensure Mehmet III's succession. Times were hard in those days.




Next stop on our tour was the Topkapi Palace. Topkai was home to Selim the Sot, who drowned in the bathtub after drinking too much champagne, Ibrahim the Mad, who lost his mind after being locked up in the palace Kafes, and Roxelana, beautiful and malevolent consort of Suleyman the Magnificent. Mehmet the Conqueror built Topkapi in 1453, and subsequent sultans lived there until the 19th century, when they moved to Dolmabahce Palace.
This place is absolutely enormous, and I'm sure the short time we spent there barely scratched the surface of what the palace as to offer as a museum. Inside the grounds is a church built in about 540, which replaces a christian church and before that a pagan temple. One one side is a little fountain where the imperial executioner washed his tools after beheadings; the heads were then displayed on pikes above the gate.
Through the middle gate, all other than the sultan and his mother had to dismount, and the second court is where the business of runnig the empire took place. Topkapi is built as a series of pavilions, kitchens, barracks, audience chambers and sleeping quarters built around a central enclosure. The kitchens, down one side of the place, hold a fabulous colelction of pottery, glassware and silverware, and in the roof are huge chimneys. Must have been hot as hades in summer!

Moving around is the Gate of Felicity, or the Gate of the White Eunuchs, which was the entrance to the Sultan's private area. We didn't get to see the harem, which was disappointing.
Around a little further is the Sacred Safekeeping Rooms (sounds like Monty Python doesn't it?!) In here are such relics as a hair from the Prophet Mohammed's beard, his footprint in clay (very big!), his sword, and a tooth. In the room an imam chants from the Quran.
The Topkapi treasury holds a fantastic collection. There is the sword of Suleyman the Magnificent, the throne of Ahmed I, and the arm and skull of John the Baptist, which were in the hands of the Byzantines and fell to the Ottomans with the Conquest. The Topkapi dagger is stunning. There are three huge emeralds set into the hilt and a watch in the pommel!


There is also the famous Spoonmaker's diamond - so called because it was originally found in a street dump and bought by a street peddler for three spoons... it's only 86 carats after all, and the fifth largest diamond in the world!

This armour looked like it came straight from lord of the Rings!


Last stop on our trip, well so we thought anyway, was the Dolmabahce Palace. By this stage of the day we were getting a little overwhelmed by all that we had seen, and Dolmabahce is the glitziest of the lot! Firstly, you have to don little pink plastic booties in order to protect the flors.


The interior was designed by the same guy who did the Paris Opera. There is a Baccarat crystal balustrade on the staircase, Bohemian crustal chandeliers weighing between 1000 and 4000 kg, crystal candelabras, git ceilings and walls, intricate parquetry floors covered by Turkish carpets and a crystal piano and chairs. It's VERY hard to describe it.... you just have to see it!!!



The other famous thing about this palace is it's where Ataturk died, and all of the clocks in the palace are stopped at 9.05am, which is when he died. This is the bed in which he died...
Ok, we were pretty much all palaced out by now, so back onto the bus we went, ostensibly for home. No, there was one last stop... something special ... planned just for us.. oh god, I thought, it's going to be bloody carpets!!! No, wrong, it was a special leather show, for which the tour guide no doubt got a cut. Some of us boycotted this and went next door for a very good cup of coffee. We then organised the buses before the guide came back out - one to go directly back to the hotel and the other for those not totaly knackered who wanted to put themselves back into the hands of the tour guide. We found out later that night that this group went to a rug outlet... buhahahahaha!!!!