We woke up on our fırst day in Istanbul to be greeted by a beautiful, but very hot, sunny day. We had a bıt of a late start but it seems that the day starts quite late here anyway gıven the intense heat. The hostel where we are sdtaying provides us with a free breakfast every morning which is a nice touch and Ali, the cheerful owner, makes sure that everyone can eat ıt by having long serving times - 8am to 12pm! Lucky for us!
After plenty of bread, cheese, boiled egg and honey washed down with some Turkish tea and a chat wıth some of the other guests we set off for our first day of sightseeing. Before we even left the hostel we explored the rooftop area whıch gave us a great vıew of the Hagıa Sofia and the Blue Mosque.
Rowan playing one of the 3 tunes he knows on my uke on the hostel roof.
The Hagia Sofia as seen from our hostel roof.
Our first stop of the day was the famed Hagia Sofia, probably Istanbul's most famous site. Known as the Hagia Sofia in Greek, the Aya Sofia in Turkish and the Sancta Sophia to the Bynzantines the buıldıng's actual full name was the "Church of the Holy Wısdom of God". It's history is just as varied and complex as it's many dıfferent names suggest. There have been three churches with this name built on this site. The first two were destroyed by rioters. This version was constructed by Emperor Justinian of the Byzantine Empire in 532 AD. It started out life as a church before beıng converted to a mosque after the invasion and conquest of Constantinople (old name for Istanbul) by the Ottoman Turks ın 1453. It remained as a mosque until it was reopened as a museum in 1935 by Ataturk, the first leader of the Republic of Turkey. According to other guests at our hostel, there had a been a few large protests recently outside the Hagia Sofia by people who want it returned to being a working mosque.
The Hagia Sofia is famous for it's huge decorated dome. Apparently, it was made from special hollow bricks so that it wouldn't collapse. Inside, the walls and ceilings are covered in beautiful mosaics and the structure is supported by marble pillars. It was the largest church in the world for 1000 years and Justinian is supposed to have boasted "Solomon, I have surpassed thee!" when he saw the completed structure.
Before entering the Hagia Sofia museum we first had a look around the Sultans' Mausoleums which stand on the southeast side of the museum. They are made up of three domed mausoleums housing three different sultans and their wives and children. The first two mausoleums were really grand inside and one of them was entirely covered in blue Iznik tiles. Even better, the mausoleums were all free to enter which was a rare and beautiful thing in Istanbul as many of the museums were 25 Turkish Lira or more to enter - nearly 10 British pounds - and that soon adds up!
One of the Sultans' mausoleums.
Tiled dome of the one of the sultan's mausoleums.
In the foreground you can just about make out the green covered sarcophagi containing the remains of the Sultan and his family members. The ones with the turbans are male descendants.
After our bit of tomb raiding, we coughed up our 25 lira to get into the Hagia Sofia. It was definitely worth it and refreshing cool inside as well! It was an incredible feeling to be walking in a place with so much history. And, for you Civilisation fans (you know who you are!) it was awesome to finally see the building that allows your workers to complete improvements 50% faster! I haven't added many pictures here as our internet connection in Istanbul is painfully slow but here's a few to give some ideas of what it was like inside.
Inside the Hagia Sofia looking down onto the main hall from a gallery level.
Detail of the Deësis mosaic with Christ as ruler. Apparently, this is considered to be the best mosaic in the Hagia Sofia and probably dates from the mid 13th century.
The Comnenus Mosaic from the 12th century showing the Virgin Mary holding Jesus on her lap. We liked this one because it has an Emperor and his wife on either side of Mary - "look how important we are"!
Loge of the sultan within the Hagia Sofia. This was built by one of the sultans so that he could pray in private thereby maintaining the his air of mystery.
Stained glass windows and vaulted dome of the Hagia Sofia.
After a couple of hours marvelling at the mosaics, relics and marble columns of the Hagia Sofia, we moved onto Istanbul's other most famous site, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, more commonly known as the Blue Mosque due to the blue tiles adorning its interior. It was built in 1609 by Ahmed I and is still a working mosque despite being a huge tourist attraction. The construction was influenced by the nearby Hagia Sofia and combines those ideas with elements of Islamic architecture. Like the Hagia Sofia it has a huge central dome as well as 8 smaller one sand 6 minarets.
The Blue Mosque.
The Blue Mosque has a huge forecourt surrounded by this vaulted arcade that runs all the way round it.
As it is still a working mosque there were a few rules that visitors had to obey.
One of those rules was being suitable attired to enter the mosque. Blue wraparound cloths were available for those too skantily clad. Some women had to cover their hair. Weirdly, I didn't have to cover my hair but I did have to cover my arms.
Incredibly beautiful domed roof of the Blue Mosque. The scale and intricacy of the designs was breathtaking.
It was a massive building as you can see here.
We spent some time just sitting on the floor of the mosque enjoying the view and the coolness within. Then I gave my rather fetching blue scarf back to the officials and we headed off to the site of the old Byzantine Hippodrome. The old hippodrome was the social centre of Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire and held chariot races. There were two main factions in the chariot racing world, the Greens and the Blues, and each side was backed by a different political group. Being a supporter of either chariot racing team was also a way of expressing your political affiliation apparently. When the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 the hippodrome gradually became forgotten. Nowadays, it is a public square and few of the original structures remain. The original surface of the hippodrome is now 2 metres below the current ground level. There are a couple of obelisks that originally stood in the hippodrome still on show that are contained within deep holes at the original level of the hippodrome.
This is Thutmose III's obelisk. He was an ancient Egyptian ruler. This monument is over 3500 years old. In 390 AD, Theodosius the Great of the Roman Empire had this obelisk cut into 3 pieces and brought to Constantinople this part, the top section, still remains where he placed it.
This is known as the Serpent Column and stands in the middle of where the hippodrome would have been. It was made in the 5th century BC to commemorate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians during the Persian Wars.
This is known as the Walled Obelisk or the rough stone obelisk. It used to stand at one end of the hippodrome.
The base of the Walled Obelisk used to be covered with bronze plaques but these were stolen or destroyed by the invading Christian soldiers during the Fourth Crusade.
This is the German Fountain, a present of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Sultan Abdulhamid II in 1898. It stands in the northern end of the old hippodrome site.
We decided to take an early evening stroll to the Galata Bridge to see the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorous Sea that divides Istanbul into two halves. We hoped that a bit of sea air would bring some relief from the heat./ We were also hunting for some of the famed fish sandwiches that we'd heard so much about from other guests and the guidebooks. We never found any fish sandwiches but we did see some interesting sights on the way including, of course, more mosques!
The New Mosque located by the Galata Bridge, next to the Golden Horn. It's only 400 years old!
Place for washing your feet in the forecourt of the New Mosque.
Many local people spend their afternoons fishing off the Galata Bridge. In the background you can see one of the many passenger ferries that you can catch from there.
The New Mosque seen from Galata Bridge.
Wandering the Galata Bridge in the late afternoon was very evocative. The sound of the sea gulls wheeling and screeching above and the sound of the call to prayer form the many mosques ranged about was delightfully alien after the last two years spent in South Korea. We caught the tram back to Sultanahmet as the sun was setting behind the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. One of the things we'd noticed immediately when we first arrived late in Istanbul was the thick smell of jasmine in the air at night.
To finish up our fun day of sightseeing we had a couple of beers at the hostel with some other guests then headed off to a nearby Turkish restaurant with the rather fetching name of The Meat House with a pair of nice couples we'd met. We'd found that food and actually most other things were very expensive in the area of Istanbul that we were staying (as it was Ground Zero for tourists I guess) and this restaurant wasn't much cheaper but the food was still nice. I indulged my hunger for pide, a kind of Turkish pizza in the shape of a kayak with different fillings in the middle. Rowan had our old fave, an Iskender kebap with yogurt. We traded stories and tips with the French and New Zealand folks we were with and found out some really useful stuff from them as they'd already been round Turkey. That's one of the best things about staying in a hostel I think, the chance to meet other people and share info with them.
Turkish pide - not my picture unfortunately.
Anyways, that was a REALLY long post! Not my fault, just saw so many cool things on our first day. Next post will be shorter I'm sure!
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