The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
Hagia Sophia
To see this is why I made the journey. There were many other great things, too, of course... but this alone would have justified the trip. If only I had been able to photograph it more skillfully.
For nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral, which I visited many years ago, was built, this was the largest enclosed space in the world.
And it was in its time a major place of worship, sometimes Christian, sometimes Moslem.... and, since the 1930s... a museum?? Very sad. But given the grief churches and churchmen have inflicted on the rest of us over the years, maybe Ataturk was right. Sad though.
I've failed to give you an idea of the scale of this masterpiece. It is just huge. The main "cube" of open space under the dome is about 200' across, diagonally.
Markets... plus three "miscellaneous" shots
This is the Basilica cistern, underground and across the road from the Hagia Sophia. The Wikipedia article will give you "the numbers", e.g. it could hold about 3 million cubic feet of water. See the little cyan things in the distance? Those are people on a walkway. The columns are 9m (30ft) high.
Doner Kebab Capital of the World... for those who like it. (Not me!)
Sadly, during my visit to Istanbul, this wondrous place... still a place of worship... was closed for restoration work. You couldn't even peek through barriers to see the interior. Just one arcade on the south side was accessible... for prayer. But even that had something amazing to see. In the picture on the left, you see a magnificent door.
And, to the right, you see a photo of just a portion of the door. Locate this part of the door in the picture on the left before going on. It is about waist high, and in the picture on the left, you can see four bosses, while only three are included in the photo on the right.
Here we see just the edge of the decorative panel from the door.
Most of the door is caked with years and years of accumulated varnish, rendering it an unappealing brown. Clean, by the way... everything in Istanbul was clean... but occluded. Apart from the bit I've photographed, where someone obviously took a solvent, and cleaned just a bit of the decorative strip along the side of the panel, and one of the ivory inlays.
That decorative strip... I saw similar at the Topkapi palace... was made of hundreds and hundreds of tiny strips of woods of different colors.
The next picture shows the same area along with my trusty Swiss Army knife to give the scale. Go back to the previous picture, look closely, and you can see the cleaned area. And then go back to the first picture and try to imagine what it took to make just the decorative strip on one of the doors in this vast mosque where everything was done as exquisitely. And then multiply that up.... You see why I travel?
We've now left the Suleymaniye Mosque, and are in an adjacent cemetery, inside the mausoleum containing the tomb of Suleyman (died 1566). He was the sultan who commissioned the mosque, "one of the finest creations of the Ottoman Empire's greatest architect, Sinan" according to my "Eyewitness" travel guide. Or this may be Sinan's mausoleum, which is next door, and also has wonderful tile decorations.
Quoting this time from Wikipedia, "Suleiman is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as the Lawmaker, for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system." A great man, regardless of the title you choose to use!
Topkapi Palace
Blue Mosque
Just "across the way" from the Hagia Sophia, this, happily, is still a place of worship... and breathtaking. Again, my photographic skills just weren't up to the job.
And there's more! I've put photos of some treasures at Istanbul's Archaeological museum together on their own page, which you access by clicking the image or text below....
![[Thumbnail- maps]](IstArchMusExt1264Bthu.jpg)
Treasures of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum
Go to Istanbul/ Athens main page
Photos and text © TK Boyd 11/09. Click here to contact him.