Saturday: Topkapi Palace
We determined to spend the entire day at Topkapi palace, a short walk up the hill from our hotel. The last letter in Topkapi, although written in English as a lower case “I” is actually a Turkish letter pronounced “uh,” so the name of the palace should be said as Top kap uh.
We arrived shortly after 9 a.m., hoping to avoid long lines that were predicted for this lovely Saturday morning. There were plenty of people there but there was no line to purchase tickets and only a short line for the audio guide.
We marveled at the intricate floral and geometric designs, passed thankfully beneath the shade of the huge trees in the courtyard, and
admired the Islamic arches and mosaics. We stepped into the relative coolness of the costume museum to goggle at the finely embroidered fabrics of Sultans through history. Velvet embroidered with gold and silver in detailed patterns, made into padded robes and huge trousers with drawstrings. Beneath the robes, men wore thinner shirts. My favorites were the Talismanic shirts made from squares of various sizes with grids woven in. Each square has verses and sayings from the Koran written in different colors of inks. In some, the lines of letters are horizontal, like poetry; in others, letters are lined up vertically or diagonally. Some are like crossword puzzles with darkened squares. The squares are assembled like quilts into shirts. The verses provide protection for the wearer, a Talisman against evil.
In the treasury, one throne is decorated with 25,000 pearls. Two huge emerald decorations with lots of gold and pearls, were made for Mohammed’s mausoleum in Mecca. So what are they doing here on display? Another exhibit further along tells us that they were sent back to Istanbul in 1914 because of fear they would be plundered during WW1.
A separate exhibit across the courtyard contains religious relics of such supreme importance that an Islamic scholar/imam sings continuous prayers over them. This provides a monotone background as you go through the exhibit. When, that is, it can be heard over the babbling of the crowd, which was considerable. King David’s sword and Moses’ staff are included in the exhibits. Hundreds of people walked by, hardly even glancing into the display cases, let alone showing any respect or wonder. The crowd is much impressed with the gold and bejeweled artifacts, not with the plain wood or iron.
We also saw one of Mohammed’s saucepans and the arm and skull of John the Baptist. One of the most important artifacts is a footprint, in dried mud, left by Mohammed.
Tiring of the crowds and hungry, we turned in our audio guides (next time, don’t bother) and made our way down the hill past the archaeology museums out to a square by Gulhane park where we found sandwiches and bottled water to eat picnic style in the park. Lots of families took advantage of the wonderful Saturday weather for an outing. It was lovely, sitting on a bench in dappled shade by a fountain, watching people stroll by with their children. Teenagers sitting with their feet in the water received a rebuke by a park cop. Kids ran around the fountain and over the wooden bridge across the pond.
After lunch we went back into Topkapi grounds to visit the three museums on the hill below the Palace. A man set up a stand on the path, promising to tell your fortune with the help of two rabbits and a rooster!
One of the museum’s patrons was an 8 year old boy dressed in white, draped over with a gold embroidered and feather trimmed cloak. His white and gold shoes had pointed curled toes, and he wore a gold and white crown. We found out later that this is a typical costumes for boys to wear after the circumcision ceremony. K says they deserve to wear anything they want!
The best thing about traveling on our own is being able to spend as much time as we want in the museums and poking around the hidden corners of the palace. We spent the afternoon in the three museums: Archeaology, Tiles, and the Orient. K was much disappointed that we couldn’t find any posters for sale in the gift shops.
We met some Americans down from our neck of Germany, eating dinner at one of the restaurants beneath the Galata Bridge. As we ate, we watched the fishing line drop by with hooks and weights from the fishermen above us, then rise again with tiny (3” long) fish on the hooks. These were anchovies, some of which we ate for dinner.