Day 4
This was a most excellent day.
Sultanahmet is the name of the historic district in Istanbul where all of the really sexy tourist attractions are jammed right next to each other -- the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar, and all those other capitalized places. It's also huge, and even with a whole day of Sultanahmet, we were only able to hit up two museums. First was the Topkapi (top-KAP-uh) Palace, the biggest and best Ottoman palace around. It was a beautiful palace courtyard, with lots of interesting sights, but the real catch was the tour of the Sultan's Harem. So much ridiculously amazing Ottoman tile work, historical rooms, and generally awesome walking around-ness. My favorite was the Sultan's throne room, which was kind of small, but filled with couches and chandeliers and windows and artwork and everything. So amazing. The Eunuch's quarters were pretty cool, too, even if the whole of the palace had a rather stripped-down look. There were mostly just the beautiful walls, floors and windows left to admire, with the occasional couch thrown in.
My favorite was definitely the Aya Sofya, a.k.a. the Hagia Sophia, a.k.a the Santa Sophia, a.k.a the Church of Holy Wisdom. It was fantastic. The stuff of legends. There were Orthodox Greek pillars over a thousand years old literally just scattered around haphazardly outside the church. Apparently they don't believe in "preserving relics" around here, but at least that meant you could a close up look at them. Makes me wish I spoke ancient Greek, because there were tons of inscriptions around. There was even a recently excavated section that dated back to the early 5th century, before the fall of Rome! Granted, Byzantium was already the capital, but still, that's old.
The outside view of the church itself was incredible, but you can see that from any postcard. Inside, you really get the sense of just the weight of the place. All of the stones in the ground are literally rubbed smooth by the feet tromping over them over the centuries, to the point that the thresholds of the doors, solid blocks of marble, are worn down in the center by several inches because that's where people tend to step. There's only one passage to get upstairs, and it's a single wide but low-ceilinged and claustrophobic ramp. At the top, more worn down marble, ancient and faded mosaics of Jesus and company, and a beautiful view.
The scale of the place! I can't understand it. There is this one set of massive wooden doors that are easily twenty feet high or more, with metal grooves cut into the ground to let them open, and they don't feel out of place at all. The dome is nearly two hundred feet high, and it just towers there over you as you crane your head back as far as you can. The Islamic additions, aside from tile work and covering up of mosaics, include these massive wooden disks, maybe thirty feet in diameter, painted with enormous calligraphy work and hanging around more than a hundred feet off the ground. And the chandeliers! One big one hangs straight down from the ceiling, one long chain holding this behemoth of a chandelier off of the ground. It's so larger than life I could only walk around the halls of in awe, and we spent literally hours in there. The most staggeringly incredible church I've ever seen, built under the reign of the last great emperor of the last great empire and older than I can imagine.
What can I say? Wow.
Also, after a long search, we found one Star of David, or "jewstar," inscribed in a chandelier in the central chamber. True story.
Sultanahmet is the name of the historic district in Istanbul where all of the really sexy tourist attractions are jammed right next to each other -- the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar, and all those other capitalized places. It's also huge, and even with a whole day of Sultanahmet, we were only able to hit up two museums. First was the Topkapi (top-KAP-uh) Palace, the biggest and best Ottoman palace around. It was a beautiful palace courtyard, with lots of interesting sights, but the real catch was the tour of the Sultan's Harem. So much ridiculously amazing Ottoman tile work, historical rooms, and generally awesome walking around-ness. My favorite was the Sultan's throne room, which was kind of small, but filled with couches and chandeliers and windows and artwork and everything. So amazing. The Eunuch's quarters were pretty cool, too, even if the whole of the palace had a rather stripped-down look. There were mostly just the beautiful walls, floors and windows left to admire, with the occasional couch thrown in.
My favorite was definitely the Aya Sofya, a.k.a. the Hagia Sophia, a.k.a the Santa Sophia, a.k.a the Church of Holy Wisdom. It was fantastic. The stuff of legends. There were Orthodox Greek pillars over a thousand years old literally just scattered around haphazardly outside the church. Apparently they don't believe in "preserving relics" around here, but at least that meant you could a close up look at them. Makes me wish I spoke ancient Greek, because there were tons of inscriptions around. There was even a recently excavated section that dated back to the early 5th century, before the fall of Rome! Granted, Byzantium was already the capital, but still, that's old.
The outside view of the church itself was incredible, but you can see that from any postcard. Inside, you really get the sense of just the weight of the place. All of the stones in the ground are literally rubbed smooth by the feet tromping over them over the centuries, to the point that the thresholds of the doors, solid blocks of marble, are worn down in the center by several inches because that's where people tend to step. There's only one passage to get upstairs, and it's a single wide but low-ceilinged and claustrophobic ramp. At the top, more worn down marble, ancient and faded mosaics of Jesus and company, and a beautiful view.
The scale of the place! I can't understand it. There is this one set of massive wooden doors that are easily twenty feet high or more, with metal grooves cut into the ground to let them open, and they don't feel out of place at all. The dome is nearly two hundred feet high, and it just towers there over you as you crane your head back as far as you can. The Islamic additions, aside from tile work and covering up of mosaics, include these massive wooden disks, maybe thirty feet in diameter, painted with enormous calligraphy work and hanging around more than a hundred feet off the ground. And the chandeliers! One big one hangs straight down from the ceiling, one long chain holding this behemoth of a chandelier off of the ground. It's so larger than life I could only walk around the halls of in awe, and we spent literally hours in there. The most staggeringly incredible church I've ever seen, built under the reign of the last great emperor of the last great empire and older than I can imagine.
What can I say? Wow.
Also, after a long search, we found one Star of David, or "jewstar," inscribed in a chandelier in the central chamber. True story.