Istanbul day 2

Aya Sofia

Another jam packed day in Istanbul! It began with getting up late. Well, 8:30, but that's late for me at the moment. I then headed back to the main historical area in Istanbul to visit Aya Sofia. Now this is a building with some history. It was originally built in the fifth century by the Byzantines as a church on the site of an older one which had burnt down in the year 404. I'm told that the first occurence of the "404 error" was when someone showed up the next day and couldn't find the church. The new one, which is pretty much the same building that's standing there now, was Constantinople's primary cathedral until about 1453 and it's conversion into a mosque. And I have to admit, I'm impressed with the Sultan's conscientiousness. In Islam images of people and animals are not allowed in mosques, but instead of simply tearing down all the beautiful mosaics they were carefully documented and copied onto paper then plastered over. And as impressed with the liberal thinking of the Sultan as I may be, Ataturk takes the cake. When he came to power of the new republic in the 1920s he immediately set about secularizing Turkey and bringing it into the 20th century. Two of his actions were to convert this immensely important mosque and the Sultan's palace into a museum, uncovering again all the mosaics from Byzantine times.

Interior of Aya Sofia

After Aya Sofia I naturally headed into the palace, but not before having a quick look at the tombs of the Sultans next to the museum. I've visited a lot of tombs, crypts, mausoleums and catacombs, but in a way these were the creepiest. And the reason was somehow because of how mundane they were. They consisted simply of large octagonal rooms, the centre of which were filled at ground level with simple, unadorned wooden sarcophaguses. Most of them were very small, and it gives you a bit of a chill to walk past them within centimetres. Without all the extravagence of hellenistic sarcophogi, you become acutley aware that these are boxes with dead people in them.

Sultans' tomb

So then it was the palace. This sprawling complex was home to the Sultans and their families for about 600 years, but there's little I can say about it and due to its size it's hard to give a good impression with pictures. I will say though that the Ottomans were very fond of painted and glazed tiles, giving the impression - especially in the Harem - of being in a very expensive bathroom.

Inside the palace

Finally after the palace I headed to the Bazaar district, first going to check out the Çemberlitaş, a monument commissioned by Constantine to commemorate the founding of Constantinople, and the Aquaduct. After having a quick look at these I dove into the twisting bowels of the Grand Bazaar then the Spice Bazaar. You could lose yourself for hours in the Grand Bazaar, but somehow I enjoyed the much smaller Spice Bazaar more. That's probably because I liked to imagine all the curries and spicy dishes I could make with the mounds of herbs and spices, whereas I had little use for the various sheeshes, teapots, silk dresses, and pieces of jewellery on offer in the Grand Bazaar.

Çemberlitaş

Aquaduct

Spice Bazaar