Istanbul, Day 2: Saturday, part 1
Today we saw some of biggies in Istanbul: Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Suleyman Mosque, Archaeological Museum, the Whirling Dervishes. I'll hit the highlights.
The Blue Mosque serves as the primary Islamic religious structure in Istanbul, so tourists must respect the dress code. (You can tell its the most important because it has the most minarets - six.) We had all been warned, so all the women had brought scarves, either carried from home or purchased yesterday in Istiklal Street. We had them tied to our purses, worn around necks or shoulders or stuffed in pockets or packs. As we entered the courtyard, we draped our heads.
As we entered, we removed our shoes and slipped cloth booties (provided) over our socks. We didn't have to worry about keeping our shoulders covered since it was cool enough for sweaters and jackets.
Inside the huge room worshippers kneel on carpets covering the floor.
The beautiful blue dome rises high overhead. Lights are hung from the ceiling on long wires; you can see them in this photo.
Tourists, of course, are not permitted into the space reserved for worshippers. We crowded together on one side of the large room.
When we had oohed and ahhed sufficiently, we met outside and stared across the park at the Hagia Sophia. This church turned mosque turned museum is a World Heritage Site and has been on my really-want-to-see list for decades. It is seriously amazing.
As you go in, there's a security check of bags and persons similar to airport security. Then you walk past these huge butresses that allow the walls to carry the weight of the dome.
Inside, well, words almost fail me. It's big. Really big. You can go up on the balcony for a view.
When it was a church, the walls were covered in frescoes and mosaics. When it became a mosque, the wall decorations were plastered over, which turned out to be a good thing as many of them were preserved beneath the plaster. Those huge round things hanging at the corners are Islamic symbols from when it was a mosque.
There were plenty of people there but it's so huge the people are sort of absorbed into it and it didn't seem too crowded. Again, the light fixtures are hung on wires from the ceiling.
There are two huge alabaster jugs, see the little hole where there was a tap on the side? These are Greek urns that the sultan imported here when the Hagia Sophia became a mosque, theorectically to provide drinking water for worshippers.
There are eight huge porphyry columns. According to the material in the guidebook (but not verified), the marble for these purple columns comes from a single quarry in Egypt. It was active for a hundred years or so around 1300 BC. Since the Hagia Sophia in its present form was built between 532 and 537 AD, the columns are thought to have been snagged from some other building but no one knows where for sure. There are iron bands around each column so they stay together in spite of cracking.
The mosaics are pretty cool. A few years ago I was able to visit Ravenna in Italy, primarily to see the Justinian mosaics (poor GL who had to come along with my daylong mad dash by train and foot to see them!). Here are some other examples. These ones are the usual suspects: Jesus, Mary and John Baptist. There's another interesting one that I was unable to get a photo of, with Jesus in the middle flanked by Empress Zoe and her husband. Zoe was a serial monogamist, so each time she got a new husband, the mosaicist had to chisel out the name of her previous husband and put in the name of the current one. By the third one, the area around his name began to look a little used. Luckily, her husbands were all close enough in appearance to leave the mosaic of his person the same; only his name had to be changed!
Far too soon, we had to meet our group and scurry back to our bus for transportation to the next amazing place. That is, for us, the worst part of being with a group - not enough time to see what we want to. We could easily have spent 4 more hours in the HS.
The Blue Mosque serves as the primary Islamic religious structure in Istanbul, so tourists must respect the dress code. (You can tell its the most important because it has the most minarets - six.) We had all been warned, so all the women had brought scarves, either carried from home or purchased yesterday in Istiklal Street. We had them tied to our purses, worn around necks or shoulders or stuffed in pockets or packs. As we entered the courtyard, we draped our heads.
As we entered, we removed our shoes and slipped cloth booties (provided) over our socks. We didn't have to worry about keeping our shoulders covered since it was cool enough for sweaters and jackets.
Inside the huge room worshippers kneel on carpets covering the floor.
The beautiful blue dome rises high overhead. Lights are hung from the ceiling on long wires; you can see them in this photo.
Tourists, of course, are not permitted into the space reserved for worshippers. We crowded together on one side of the large room.
When we had oohed and ahhed sufficiently, we met outside and stared across the park at the Hagia Sophia. This church turned mosque turned museum is a World Heritage Site and has been on my really-want-to-see list for decades. It is seriously amazing.
As you go in, there's a security check of bags and persons similar to airport security. Then you walk past these huge butresses that allow the walls to carry the weight of the dome.
Inside, well, words almost fail me. It's big. Really big. You can go up on the balcony for a view.
When it was a church, the walls were covered in frescoes and mosaics. When it became a mosque, the wall decorations were plastered over, which turned out to be a good thing as many of them were preserved beneath the plaster. Those huge round things hanging at the corners are Islamic symbols from when it was a mosque.
There were plenty of people there but it's so huge the people are sort of absorbed into it and it didn't seem too crowded. Again, the light fixtures are hung on wires from the ceiling.
There are two huge alabaster jugs, see the little hole where there was a tap on the side? These are Greek urns that the sultan imported here when the Hagia Sophia became a mosque, theorectically to provide drinking water for worshippers.
There are eight huge porphyry columns. According to the material in the guidebook (but not verified), the marble for these purple columns comes from a single quarry in Egypt. It was active for a hundred years or so around 1300 BC. Since the Hagia Sophia in its present form was built between 532 and 537 AD, the columns are thought to have been snagged from some other building but no one knows where for sure. There are iron bands around each column so they stay together in spite of cracking.
The mosaics are pretty cool. A few years ago I was able to visit Ravenna in Italy, primarily to see the Justinian mosaics (poor GL who had to come along with my daylong mad dash by train and foot to see them!). Here are some other examples. These ones are the usual suspects: Jesus, Mary and John Baptist. There's another interesting one that I was unable to get a photo of, with Jesus in the middle flanked by Empress Zoe and her husband. Zoe was a serial monogamist, so each time she got a new husband, the mosaicist had to chisel out the name of her previous husband and put in the name of the current one. By the third one, the area around his name began to look a little used. Luckily, her husbands were all close enough in appearance to leave the mosaic of his person the same; only his name had to be changed!
Far too soon, we had to meet our group and scurry back to our bus for transportation to the next amazing place. That is, for us, the worst part of being with a group - not enough time to see what we want to. We could easily have spent 4 more hours in the HS.