It is funny. This morning marks disembarkation from the Crystal Serenity, which always has that, "Get off the boat now!" feel. But we are looking forward to escaping this ship and getting to a hotel, because in spite of the luxuriousness and the kindness of the staff, the noxious fumes that have made us both sick on this voyage are a factor we are eager to escape. Sad and ironic that fresh air could not be found on the open sea. But joy of joys, Barbie has booked us at the Ritz Carlton Istanbul for a few nights. And we plan to make the most of it.
The last breakfast aboard the Crystal Serenity. I think I will miss the breakfast most of all.
Barbie headed down to the stateroom to finish up the last bits of packing while I went to the front, top of the ship to see if I could get a desired photo.
The Bosphorus Bridge was not built until 1973, and at that time it was the 4th longest suspension bridge in the world and the longest outside North America.
A look at the Bosphorus from the front of the ship. The black tower to the left is our next destination.
Levon, our guide from yesterday and our guide for tomorrow, is not available today, but he arranged a colleague for us today. We were met at the seaport by our guide and driver, and taken to our hotel to drop off our bags and spend the day touring Istanbul.
Ah... I just learned that the heritage of this name goes back to Swiss hotelier Cesar Ritz, who opened the Hotel Ritz in the Place Vendome, Paris, in 1898. Next came London and Madrid. I doubt he knew that over 100 years later his last name would mean super-classy and be an American cracker.
Our room was not ready, as expected, but we dropped off our bags and headed back to the car with the same driver as yesterday, whom we really liked.
Sometimes extravagance is funny.
But then...
We were no further than a few blocks from the hotel when were stopped by police.
We had no idea what was going on, and it was very unpleasant. We soon learned that we could not be in the van we had been in all day yesterday, because of the tinted windows. This was not at all cool. When you are in a foreign country, one whose officials you are not sure you can trust, being pulled over like this was unnerving.
What happened next was highly unpleasant. The short and least unpleasant version is that we took a cab back to the hotel, Levon arranged another car for us, It turned out to be a mini-bus big enough for 20 people, but it would do. The truth is that it was a struggle of sorts for an hour there, and our day was "this close" to being over.
But we got back on the road and we are headed to Golden Horn, home to ancient Byzantium, and Roman and Ottoman Constantinople.
This is all that remains of the Byzantine walls. This walled peninsula was extremely well fortified and stood for centuries. Even after all of Anatolia and the surrounding areas were Ottoman, the Golden Horn of Constantinople remained Byzantine.
In fact, the walled city is what the Turks called Istambul or Stambul depending on dialect, which meant, "the city," during Ottoman times while the rest of the city was called Constantinople. It was not until the Republic of Turkiye was established in 1923 that the Turkish name Istanbul became the official name of this city.
The Ottoman struggle to take this city was legendary. Perhaps I will get to it today or tomorrow?
We are now approaching the Imperial Gate of Topkapı Palace.
The Gate of Salutation. Topkapı Palace was the official residence of Ottoman Sultans fro 1465 to 1856, for 400 years of their 624 year reign, when they moved to Dolmabahçe Palace that we visited yesterday. As this palace was built and added to and added over the centuries, it has many different courtyards and elements.
I often wonder if all the pre-War European monarchs gather in the afterlife and ask, "Good lord, why are we toast and yet those Germans & Scots living Birmingham Palace have stuck around?"
The Ottoman Turks were strongly influenced by their Arab neighbors, their European neighbors (Greek/Roman/Byzantine) and the Seljuk Turk ancestors, and Ottoman Architecture is truly a mix of all three. This empire is where East and West met, and their architecture is the result of that.
The Sultan would sit behind that window listening to his counselors, and then giving his decisions. You know, no truly great leader actually meets his underlings face to face.
As you can see, the mosaics are ornate beyond belief.
In the inner courtyard what was once a royal residence is now a museum of artifacts, as well as the treasury of royal jewels.
No pictures allowed in the room with the crown jewels.
Barbie always points out how women all attempt model poses now. It happens most often when two young, single women are together and take turns releasing their inner models. I confess; it bothers me even as it entertains me. But I know with mass media you can never come close to convincing people that studying science or teaching is more important than being pretty. Oh well.
One of the many courtyards of Topkapı Palace. This one leads to the Privy Chamber houses the Chamber of the Sacred Relics, which is one of the main highlights of the palace. Why?
The Chamber of the Sacred Relics is an amazing thing to see. As the sign reads, there is no photography allowed around the relics. This means you need me to describe it.
Something interesting about Islam is that the Prophet Muhammad is a historically recent enough figure that a direct connection to him and his possessions can be established. Remember those centuries when the Ottoman Empire essentially ruled the Muslim world? They used that era to collect many of the items sacred within the Muslim faith. The Chamber of the Sacred Relics houses the Prophet Muhammad's cloack, two swords, a bow, one tooth, a hair of his beard, his battle sabres, an autographed letter and others. Unlike the things I saw in Jerusalem that was loosely connected by myths and tradition, these items have a provenance.
But among the other relics housed here are some where I must add tradition states. Many of these came from Egypt, which means that it was the Egyptians and not the Ottomans who created the tradition that on this day we saw The Staff of Moses. Behind the glass was a very cool looking wooden staff and, yes, tradition states that this is the staff owned by Moses and used for many miracles. We also saw what tradition states is the turban of Joseph, the son of Jacob whose brothers sold him into slavery. Before you go getting judgmental about this, I should add that it is the relics of Muhammad that draw the real attention here. Watching people pass by them with a glance, I suspect that the majority of the visitors here know that the relics that are alleged to date from the Old Testament are not exactly the genuine articles.
Still, how freaking cool is it for me to say, "I saw the Staff of Moses last November." Bam. More holy than you by a mile.
Our hotel is right THERE. To the right, in the foreground, is the Baghdad Pavilion.
A trippy panorama inside the Baghdad Pavilion, built to commemorate the victory in Baghdad. Sultan Murad IV had something very interesting to say after his victory. I guess trying to capture Baghdad was better than Baghdad itself.
Inside the Bagdad Pavilion is a silver stove that was a gift from King Louis IV of France, the longest-reigning monarch in European history. Again, the Ottoman Empire was a constant mix of cultures.
The circumcision room. It is funny how in the USA circumcision is only associated with Judaism, whereas worldwide there are 1.5 billion Muslims and 15 million Jews doing the same. Maybe it is more fair to match the base for each number. For every circumcised Jew, you have around one hundred circumcised Muslims.
Which is not to say that Islam does not credit the people who came up with the circumcision concept. This mosaic is on the wall next to the circumcision room. The history of Islam and Judaism is about as complicated as a history can get, and is made far more complicated by current circumstances. Maybe in fifty or a hundred years this relationship can be discussed with more history than emotion.
Within Topkapı Palace, this column is what remains of the Byzantine era.
Time to leave the palace and venture onward. We saw only the highlights of Topkapı Palace, but there is more on the Golden Horn that we want to see and today is our only day to see it.
Barbie did not buy one, even though I begged.
In Turkish this is the Ayasofya Muzesi, in English we call it the Hagia Sofia.
The Hagia Sofia, what I would dare call the building with the most fascinating history on Earth. Why? This is the third church built on this spot, built over the remain of the previous two. The first was built in 360 AD as the principle church of the Byzantine Empire. The first was burnt down during riots in the early 400's, and the second was built in 415 AD, burned down during a revolt during 532 AD.
Emperor Justinian I decided immediately to build a third and far more significant church on this spot. It was a massive undertaking so significant that its importance was acknowledged at the time of its construction. Designed by a physicist and mathematician, the Hagia Sofia was completed in 537 AD and at the time was the largest cathedral in the world for a thousand years. A thousand years! In 1520 Seville built a larger cathedral.
The Hagia Sofia was the seat of the Eastern Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, and the religious focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church. You can rightly say that the Hagia Sofia was the St. Peters Basilica of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
And note that the Catholic St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was not completed until 1626. The Hagia Sofia had been Christianity's unquestioned ost important church for a thousand years before the Popes of Rome completed their great Basilica.
Being the largest cathedral in the world from 537 AD to 1520 AD would make this building fascinating enough, but then we add the special history of Constantinople. When the Ottomans finally took Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II ordered that the Hagia Sofia become a mosque. That is why in that huge space you see above there are a few Islamic elements here and there, and very little evidence of the Eastern Orthodox history here.
In fact, the design of mosques throughout the Ottoman Empire almost always take cues from the Hagia Sofia. This Eastern Orthodox landmark of technical marvel set the standard for an entirely new religious stream.
A panorama of one of the more incredible spaces on the planet. I am not exaggerating. To be in a space this huge and overwhelming, and to know that it was built 1,500 years ago, is simply remarkable.
But the history of this place changes once again.
Barbie and yours truly, proving that we were actually there.
The next step in the Hagia Sofia's history might be the most impressive since its construction. At the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire fell and the Allies attempted to divide the spoils while the Turks regrouped and fought and won their independence. And the Republic of Turkiye was lead by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who more than any other historical figure I can name deserves to be called the George Washington of...
Atatürk believe so strongly in secularism, democracy, and respect for other cultures that, in 1935 as the first President of the Republic of Turkiye, ordered the building be converted from a mosque into a museum. Most of the Islamic coverings were removed, including carpets and white plaster. Mosaics and flooring that had been covered for centuries were visible again.
The Hagia Sofia was in bad shape after all of this, but thanks to backing from American Express, restoration efforts are on the way. But I cannot say forcefully enough how impressive I believe it is that the leader of the Turks, a man so honored by his people that he was given the honorific Atatürk as the father of all Turks, chose to un-do a wrong committed by his ancestors centuries earlier.
After all I have seen traveling around these lands conquered and reconquered by great powers, the idea that someone would reverse a previous generation's wrongdoing greatly inspires me.
One of the Byzantine mosaics, uncovered after centuries.
This mosaic is, to me, a wonderful piece of politics. It represents three people giving their contributions to the Hagia Sofia and Eastern Orthodoxy itself. In the center it depicts Mary presenting the baby Jesus; her contribution. On the right it depicts Emperor Constantine I presenting the city of Constantinople; his contribution. And on the left it depicts Emperor Justinian I presenting the Hagia Sofia; his contribution.
This mosaic dates to 944 AD, but if you ask me it depicts a Byzantine desire to closely tie together their Roman Empire with Christianity and the earlier Roman Empire.
The website devoted to Kitlers, or cats that look like hitler. I kidded around with some friends, and soon this picture became...
I know not everyone is familiar with the i can haz... internet phenomenon, but this is my contribution to it. Just know that the above Kitler is a stray that lives in the courtyard of the amazing Hagia Sofia.
Walking to our lunch, we passed more street vendors. If this kind of thing makes you think of New York City, consider this: Istanbul and NYC are very close in population. Did you think of Istanbul as comparable to NYC? You should. The funny thing is that when our guide and I discussed this, she was disappointed. Apparently she wanted to think that Istanbul far outsized NYC.
I have not mentioned her much, because, well, let us just say that we preferred the day before with Levon.
We had lunch in a small cafe near the Hagia Sofia.
I would say that eating lunch in a private room that looks like this counts as very cool.
No menu. They simply brought food ordered by our guide. Who... did not ask us what we liked. The day before Levon asked us what we liked and disliked and then ordered what he thought would be Turkish food we would enjoy.
Soup.
Pastas and veggies and stuff. Neither Barbie nor I were thrilled.
Turkish coffee.
Finishing with some tea. I do love these Turkish tea glasses.
An old map of the Golden Horn of Constantinople.
After lunch we walked to the Basilica Cistern. We had no idea what to expect.
I took this picture to get the sign, but the tourist staring at me is the reason that it made the Waste. I almsot made this black and white, but to claim this to be a candid would be wrong. That guy knows he is on camera.
I always take pictures of the tickets, so that I have a record of where I have been. How is that for a travel tip? In this case, I include the ticket on the Waste so that you can see the Basilica Cistern well lighted.
We entered the cistern and went down approximately two stories underground to see this...
This is what it feels like to walk around this cistern. Byzantium and then Constantinople were able to grow due to two major aqueducts. Of course a city needs water to grow. But have you ever asked what happened to that water? In Roman times? What did they do with that water?
The water was stored in cisterns, relatively huge, man-built reservoirs with waterproof linings. In other words, you get to walk around the Basilica Cistern and marvel at how a city of 500,000 got their fresh water in the ancient world. This cistern was built as early as the 300's and was expanded over the centuries. In its current form it could hold 2.8 million cubic feet of water.
This space is, again, incredible.
In the Northwest corner of the cistern are two Medusa heads, which were brought from elsewhere as column supports. The origin of the Medusa heads is unclear, but it is believed that they came from a building from an earlier period and were used to save money on construction materials. Tradition states that the two heads are sideways and upside to negate their power, but most likely this was to fit best with the column above.
After visiting the cistern that has been hidden underground, we next went to one of the sites of Istanbul that you can see from many parts of the city; the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, or the Blue Mosque.
With it its distinctive six minarets, you cannot miss the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. (You have to look the right where the sun is obscuring to see where the front pair sit.
For the first time in my life, I am entering a mosque.
Shoes off and held in the plastic bag provided. So courteous.
Here we are, inside the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It is often called the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles on the interior walls. Inspired by the neighboring Hagia Sofia, this place is a massive open space inside. Completed in 1616 during the rule of Sultan Ahmed I, the Blue Mosque is around 1100 years
Only men who intend to pray are allowed beyond the short wall, but as you can see this gentleman and his wife planned a little tourism while he was over there. Behind him to the left, you see what I have to say might be one of the thickest columns that I have ever seen.
When Pope Benedict XVI visited the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in 2006, it marked the second time in history that a Pope visited a Muslim place of worship. The first was when John Pail II visited a mosque in Damascus in 2001. I suppose that I should not be surprised, considering the history of crusades and invasions between Catholic Europe and the Muslim world. I think that is one of things that Americans, with their lack of attention to history, miss when they consider current conflicts with the Muslim world today. These conflicts did not start in the 1940's.
And now time for the not nice section.
I know I am being culturally insensitive, and maybe Muslim women would tell me to shut up, but I have to point out that this wall in the back corner of the mosque separates worshipping men and women. But... how can I not note that the men have that massive, central space and the women have a tiny, walled corner?
Outside the mosque are facilities for ablution, or ritual cleaning before entering for prayer. And now get to cultural imperialism again.
I can agree that, yes, it is not an insult to allow women their privacy away from men. But I also happen to know that the entrance is in the front, and that this building is pretty huge, which means that the women also have furthest to walk.
We walked out the front gate, and turned back.
Finally, a shot with all six minarets!
Obelisk! The obelisk of Thutmose III sits in front of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in the Hippodrome, which was the sporting center of Constantinople. Today, instead of being a horse track, it is an open park with this obelisk in the center. Theodosius I, the last emperor to rul both the Eastern and Western Roman empires, brought this pink granite obelisk from the Temple of Karnak in Luxor.
Good news for me. In the Hippodrom you also see the remnants of the Serpent Column. That is not a rope, but three snakes wrapped around each other to the top, where there three heads supported a golden bowl. In order to boost their new capital Constantinople, Constantine and his successors brought pieces from around the Byzantine empire.
The Serpent Column was taken from rom the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, where it was called the Tripod of Plataea. It had been made to celebrate the Greek victory in the war against Persia in 479 BC. Constantine ordered the Tripod to be moved to the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Fortunately time and Crusaders made sure that no remnants of serpent remain. For all we know it could be rope.
And that ended a very long day. Time to go back to that hotel room. Time for work and television.
The Bosphorus Bridge at night is a fantastic light show. One that we can see from our room.
I know a lot of people would go out and see the nightlife of Istanbul, but we just want to stay in and order room service. We are still medicating our illnesses quite vigorously.
Room service!
Penne pasta for him.
Salad for her.
Jumbo prawn risotto for her. (And him.)
Tomorrow we do something extra cool. No joke.
Until then...
Barbie headed down to the stateroom to finish up the last bits of packing while I went to the front, top of the ship to see if I could get a desired photo.
See it? You really cannot see it unless you expand the picture. That is the Bosphorus Bridge. Here is a crop...
See the bridge? Sometimes called the Frist Bosphorus Bridge, because now there is a second one, that bridge connects Europe and Asia. The land you see to the left is Europe, the land to the right is asia. The land behind it is Asia as well, as the Bosphorus turns North-East after the bridge.
You have no idea what a big deal I made out of this bridge. I kept taking pictures of it. For 2,500 years, humankind wanted to bridge these continents here, instead of having to load onto ship for the short journey or travel hundreds of miles out of the way around the Black Sea. On the North side of the narrow Bosphorus Strait sat Europe and its civilizations; on the South side sat the Middle East, Africa, and near-East Asia with their countless civilizations.
The Bosphorus Bridge was not built until 1973, and at that time it was the 4th longest suspension bridge in the world and the longest outside North America.
Levon, our guide from yesterday and our guide for tomorrow, is not available today, but he arranged a colleague for us today. We were met at the seaport by our guide and driver, and taken to our hotel to drop off our bags and spend the day touring Istanbul.
Our room was not ready, as expected, but we dropped off our bags and headed back to the car with the same driver as yesterday, whom we really liked.
But then...
What happened next was highly unpleasant. The short and least unpleasant version is that we took a cab back to the hotel, Levon arranged another car for us, It turned out to be a mini-bus big enough for 20 people, but it would do. The truth is that it was a struggle of sorts for an hour there, and our day was "this close" to being over.
But we got back on the road and we are headed to Golden Horn, home to ancient Byzantium, and Roman and Ottoman Constantinople.
In fact, the walled city is what the Turks called Istambul or Stambul depending on dialect, which meant, "the city," during Ottoman times while the rest of the city was called Constantinople. It was not until the Republic of Turkiye was established in 1923 that the Turkish name Istanbul became the official name of this city.
The Ottoman struggle to take this city was legendary. Perhaps I will get to it today or tomorrow?
I often wonder if all the pre-War European monarchs gather in the afterlife and ask, "Good lord, why are we toast and yet those Germans & Scots living Birmingham Palace have stuck around?"
Something interesting about Islam is that the Prophet Muhammad is a historically recent enough figure that a direct connection to him and his possessions can be established. Remember those centuries when the Ottoman Empire essentially ruled the Muslim world? They used that era to collect many of the items sacred within the Muslim faith. The Chamber of the Sacred Relics houses the Prophet Muhammad's cloack, two swords, a bow, one tooth, a hair of his beard, his battle sabres, an autographed letter and others. Unlike the things I saw in Jerusalem that was loosely connected by myths and tradition, these items have a provenance.
But among the other relics housed here are some where I must add tradition states. Many of these came from Egypt, which means that it was the Egyptians and not the Ottomans who created the tradition that on this day we saw The Staff of Moses. Behind the glass was a very cool looking wooden staff and, yes, tradition states that this is the staff owned by Moses and used for many miracles. We also saw what tradition states is the turban of Joseph, the son of Jacob whose brothers sold him into slavery. Before you go getting judgmental about this, I should add that it is the relics of Muhammad that draw the real attention here. Watching people pass by them with a glance, I suspect that the majority of the visitors here know that the relics that are alleged to date from the Old Testament are not exactly the genuine articles.
Still, how freaking cool is it for me to say, "I saw the Staff of Moses last November." Bam. More holy than you by a mile.
Inside the Bagdad Pavilion is a silver stove that was a gift from King Louis IV of France, the longest-reigning monarch in European history. Again, the Ottoman Empire was a constant mix of cultures.
Time to leave the palace and venture onward. We saw only the highlights of Topkapı Palace, but there is more on the Golden Horn that we want to see and today is our only day to see it.
Emperor Justinian I decided immediately to build a third and far more significant church on this spot. It was a massive undertaking so significant that its importance was acknowledged at the time of its construction. Designed by a physicist and mathematician, the Hagia Sofia was completed in 537 AD and at the time was the largest cathedral in the world for a thousand years. A thousand years! In 1520 Seville built a larger cathedral.
The Hagia Sofia was the seat of the Eastern Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, and the religious focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church. You can rightly say that the Hagia Sofia was the St. Peters Basilica of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
And note that the Catholic St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was not completed until 1626. The Hagia Sofia had been Christianity's unquestioned ost important church for a thousand years before the Popes of Rome completed their great Basilica.
In fact, the design of mosques throughout the Ottoman Empire almost always take cues from the Hagia Sofia. This Eastern Orthodox landmark of technical marvel set the standard for an entirely new religious stream.
But the history of this place changes once again.
Atatürk believe so strongly in secularism, democracy, and respect for other cultures that, in 1935 as the first President of the Republic of Turkiye, ordered the building be converted from a mosque into a museum. Most of the Islamic coverings were removed, including carpets and white plaster. Mosaics and flooring that had been covered for centuries were visible again.
The Hagia Sofia was in bad shape after all of this, but thanks to backing from American Express, restoration efforts are on the way. But I cannot say forcefully enough how impressive I believe it is that the leader of the Turks, a man so honored by his people that he was given the honorific Atatürk as the father of all Turks, chose to un-do a wrong committed by his ancestors centuries earlier.
After all I have seen traveling around these lands conquered and reconquered by great powers, the idea that someone would reverse a previous generation's wrongdoing greatly inspires me.
This mosaic dates to 944 AD, but if you ask me it depicts a Byzantine desire to closely tie together their Roman Empire with Christianity and the earlier Roman Empire.
Upon our exit from the Hagia Sofia, I saw a cat in the courtyard that caught my eye. I had to take his picture for a special website.
I have not mentioned her much, because, well, let us just say that we preferred the day before with Levon.
We had lunch in a small cafe near the Hagia Sofia.
After lunch we walked to the Basilica Cistern. We had no idea what to expect.
We entered the cistern and went down approximately two stories underground to see this...
The water was stored in cisterns, relatively huge, man-built reservoirs with waterproof linings. In other words, you get to walk around the Basilica Cistern and marvel at how a city of 500,000 got their fresh water in the ancient world. This cistern was built as early as the 300's and was expanded over the centuries. In its current form it could hold 2.8 million cubic feet of water.
This space is, again, incredible.
After visiting the cistern that has been hidden underground, we next went to one of the sites of Istanbul that you can see from many parts of the city; the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, or the Blue Mosque.
And now time for the not nice section.
The Serpent Column was taken from rom the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, where it was called the Tripod of Plataea. It had been made to celebrate the Greek victory in the war against Persia in 479 BC. Constantine ordered the Tripod to be moved to the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Fortunately time and Crusaders made sure that no remnants of serpent remain. For all we know it could be rope.
And that ended a very long day. Time to go back to that hotel room. Time for work and television.
I know a lot of people would go out and see the nightlife of Istanbul, but we just want to stay in and order room service. We are still medicating our illnesses quite vigorously.
Room service!
Tomorrow we do something extra cool. No joke.
Until then...
Aside from a few obvious mistakes, very interesting
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