Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace was the traditional (until the 19th century) abode of the sultans and the Ottoman empire's chief administrative offices. It, like most of the historic sites, is just a ten minute walk up the hill from our campsite.

Entrance to the inner courtyard

Dirty old man at the entrance to the harem; actually, disappointingly, the harem 
was just the family quarters; and the sultan's mom kept strict control over whom 
the sultan was consorting with

The place is loaded with beautiful tile-work

Tiled dome in one of the ante-rooms

Cute little dioramas helped us to understand everything (actually there was ample 
English signage)

Throne room

Other throne room

From the bedroom, a Sultan's view of the new district

Beautiful stained glass

And--something we have not seen before-- matching tile on 
the adjacent wall



Attempted artsy-fartsy self-portrait in a harem mirror

More Topkapi environs

Entrance to the Treasury (no pix)

Looking across the Bosphorus to the (Byzantine) Maiden Tower

The Bosphorus from the terrace at Topkapi; actually we found Topkapi a bit 
disaapointing in the opulence department, far less opulent than the Moorish 
sites we have seen in Spain, most of which antedate Muslim Constantinople 
by centuries

Us, at the terrace, overlooking the Bosphorus

Instanbul's Grand Bazaar

Our project for Tuesday was to see more of Sultanahmet, which we did, and then do the Grand Bazaar, the world's oldest and still largest shopping mall. 4,000 shops; and those are just the ones under the roof.

Main entrance, Gate #1 (of 18, I think); it is an incredible 
maze inside

But there is occasional and helpful (if you read Turkish) 
signage

This is pretty much what it looks like, mile after mile...

On the main drag at least there are occasional interpretive

signs in English

We occasionally strayed onto the streets surrounding the Bazaar, which are pretty 
much the same, except there are cars and trucks and no roof; here we are in the 
rivet district

There are hundreds of rivet stores, here and in ot her parts 
of Istanbul; apparently they go through a lot of rivets in 
Istanbul

A riveting pair of jeans

Now we are in the police supply district, dozens of such stores



Here we are in the textile manufacturer supply district, where you can buy, in 
bulk, whatever label and washing instructions you want to put on the garments 
you manufacture

There are many small, specialized shops in the Bazaar; here 
in an antiques area, a shop devoted just to old gramaphones 
and parts; sales, however, were not brisk

Of course there is enough gold for sale to rival Fort Knox; and silver, too; we 
ventured into the extant silver-smithing han and watched some of the work; 
in the good old days, manufacture and finishing were done in a han, adjoining 
the relevant retail shops



And there is plenty of "regional" stuff for sale too, although the tourist trinket 
shoppes have by no means taken over; one sees plenty of tourists, but the 
majority of people there clearly were Turks

My sharp business eye tells me that the guys [sic] really raking it in at the Bazaar 
are the ones selling and delivering Turkish tea to the merchants themselves

Galata Bridge

After our walk in the new town, we descended past the Galata Tower to the Galata Bridge and crossed it to Eminonu, a transportation hub and place of many sights.

The Galata Bridge is neither old nor architecturally 
interesting,  but it does carry the tram, cars and trucks and 
buses, and pedestrians, peddlers, and dozens of fisher-persons

I enjoyed the message here "building bridges between the 
cultures"

On the Eminonu side, these three boats sells tons on fresh grilled fish sandwiches 
to adoring crowds; I ate there a couple nights later

One interesting feature of the Galata Bridge is that dozens of restaurants lie 
immediately below it (here with their sun shades down)

Looking across the Golden Horn to the new town, and Galata Tower

Eminonu, where the main train station and the main tram line converge, also 
many of the commuter ferries, beginning of old town, many sights, here, the 
"new" mosque (mid-16th century)

The pedestrian under-passes from port to tram or mosque or wherever are always 
wall-to-wall people, shops...

But there is relative tranquility at the numerous "money-from-the-wall" sites

"New" Istanbul

Monday we took the new town walk, riding the tram from Sultanahmet to Kabatas and then the funicular up the hill to Taksim Square, walking Istiklal St. and then Galip Dede (I think) down to Tunel and the Galata Bridge.

The Kabatos/Taksim funicular

The very famous Republic Monument and 

Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey

Istiklal St., main drag, fashionable shoppes,

pedestrianized, crowded, even on a Monday

morning; the area burned in the later 19th

century and was rebuilt with lots of Art

Nouveau



Ceiling dome at Haci Abdullah (1888) where we had lunch;

lamb and chicken shishes, tomato and cucumber salad, tea,

coffee...

The old-fashioned way

In a kebabery

In the mother of all pashmina shoppes; fortunately, after

Nepal, Thailand, etc., we are so over pashminas

In the mother of all Turkish glass stores: too fragile to buy,

fortunately; not pictured is Haci Bekir, the mother of all

Turkish delight stores; fortunately, not breakable, so we

loaded up...

Cafeterias like this are very popular



Down-sloping alley cafe

At this point we left Istaklal and walked

down Galip Dede; in three blocks there must

have been fifty (50) musical instrument stores,

most general, some specialized, like this, the

(traditional) percussion store

Or this, the cymbal store

A few blocks later we are into the trophy and sign district

And, finally, having passed the Galata Tower (pictured

elsewhere), down to the Galata Bridge, we are in the

hardware district

Down to the Sea in Cars

Just down from our campground is a large boat ramp and an area with no guard rail. Sometime Tuesday morning someone managed to lose his/her car in the sea. As we were heading out for the day's sightseeing, we witnessed its recovery. Apparently no one was injured.

The police scuba diver has attached the cables and the car is

being gently lifted out

Attracting a small crowd and local TV

Steady as you go...

Look familiar, Rachel?

Meanwhile, other people use boats; fishing boats much

favored by the seagulls

Cistern

The emperor Justinian built a huge underground cistern, in the 7th century, near the Hippodrome, to provide water to the city in times of siege. Over the centuries it was neglected, fell into disuse, and eventually was forgotten. Rediscovered, renovated, it is now a major sight, and an impressive one too.

The whole thing is 20-30 feet underground, now only partially flooded, with a 
boardwalk for visitors, attractively lighted; in area, about the size of two 
football fields

One of the columns; the whole thing was built using spare/
disused parts, so hardly any columns or capitals match

One of the two Medusa heads; capitals, one upside down...

The other, sideways

View of another part of the Cistern