Exploring Istanbul

After the long tiring day at the Topkapi palace we were all exhausted and slept well. Thursday morning came early with the usual call to prayer at about 6 in the morning and we were finally starting to feeling refreshed. Hopefully the jet lag was behind us. We had our usual breakfast and headed into the old city.

Our first stop was the Blue Mosque. Also known as the Sultan Ahmet Camii (or Sultan Ahmed Mosque), this breath-taking building is one of the most majestic Ottoman mosques in all of Turkey. The Blue Mosque was built in the early 1600s. It was designed as an imperial show of strength to complement the imposing Hagia Sophia, which faces it across Sultanahmet Square.

'Elephant foot' pillar

Unlike the Hagia Sophia; however, it is supported by four 'elephant foot' pillars. The central dome (77 feet in diameter and 141 feet high) is flanked by four semi-domes, making it nearly a square in shape. It is dubbed the Blue Mosque because of over 20,000 handmade ceramic Iznik tiles that decorate the interior. The tiles feature many different tulip, rose, carnation, and lily designs, and the dome is well lit by 260 windows. Unfortunately for us, although we could enter the building, it was under renovation and the entire ceiling and dome was hidden from view. 

Our next stop was the Hagia Sophia, located just across the square. Hagia Sophia is a great architectural beauty and an important monument both for Byzantine and for Ottoman Empires. Once a church, later a mosque, and now a museum at the Turkish Republic, Hagia Sophia has always been the precious of its time. Hagia Sophia was chosen as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1985.

Rebuilt by the orders of Emperor Justinian in 537, for 900 years Hagia Sophia had been the center of Orthodox Christianity until 1453 when the city was concurred by the Ottomans. 500 years following the conquest of Muslims, it became a jewel for the Muslim world and as the grand mosque of the sultans. In 1935, Hagia Sophia as converted into a museum of Turkish Republic by the orders of Ataturk, and became one of the most significant monuments not only in Turkey but on earth with its architecture and historical richness.

Again, like everything else we have visited so far, it was under renovation. At least in the Hagia Sophia they were only working on a part of it so the majority was still visible. The building was truly remarkable and just impossible to describe. The walls were covered with both Muslim and Christian pictures, mosaics and symbols. A truly unusual occurrence.

The walkway to the second level in itself was enough to cause marvel. Instead of stairs, a ramp wound around and around in a corridor; the floor, the walls, the ceiling, they were all solid stone. It certainly didn’t feel like we were still in a church, it felt like we were on the way to an underground cistern.

Speaking of cistern, that was next on the list. One of the magnificent ancient buildings of İstanbul is the Basilica Cistern. Constructed in the 4th century, this big underground water cistern was the major water reservoir of Constantinople. The water was transported to this cistern from the Belgrade Forest by the immense Byzantine aqueducts. The cistern is 460 feet long, and 230 feet wide. The Cistern shelters 336 columns, each of which is 30 feet high. The majority of the columns are understood to have been compiled from the remains or ‘leftovers’ of ancient structures and sculpted of various kinds of marbles. The cistern was planned to be filled with water and never viewed by the public, therefore there is no congruity. The column bases and crowns vary and two columns rest on massive blocks with the face of Medusa carved into them. Again, since this was never meant to be seen, the faces were not placed upright. One rests on its side and the other is upside down. This cistern was featured in the James Bond Movie “From Russia with Love” and more recent Tom Hanks movie, “Inferno”.