The travels continue

I have been given many reasons why it is called the Golden Horn. Some say it is because of the plentiful fish which makes it seem like the golden horn of cornucopia. Others say it is because when the sun sets it looks golden in colour, and then again others say the fleet of the sultans were berthed in that stretch of water, and they often brought back gold or were decorated with gold. So take your choice, but after looking at all the people fishing from the bridge, my bet is on the abundance of fish.
The Galatasaray fish market is a series of covered laneways, which are like a bazaar. There are many shops selling a myriad of things and it was not long before Sheila was negotiating the ‘best’ price for some bracelets. We had lunch at a small open air café in one of the lane ways enjoying stuffed vine leaves etc. A Muslim man with his wife and child were sat at the table next to us, and he insisted that he share his food with us. Again we shared no common language other than smiles, and we walked off to look at more shops feeling very happy with being in Turkey, and the hospitality that had been shown in very simple but effective ways.
We went back to the hotel for a short rest before we set off on a walk up to the Blue Mosque. We got lost in the back streets near the Roman walls, but in the end found our way up the hill to the Blue Mosque for a sound and light show. (Son et Lumiere)
Son et Lumiere at the Blue Mosque, top right.

This show is free and put on at dusk from May until September. One night it is in French, another German, and then others in English. We picked some seats, and while we waited for the show to begin I was whisked away to a carpet shop to see the ‘best’ carpets in Istanbul. I was very, very impressed with the silk carpets until I found out that the smallest ones cost Australian $1,000. Sheila was not overly impressed that I had gone off and left her, minding the seats and with a fear that I had been abducted. The sound and light show was superb, featuring the history of Constantinople/Istanbul and particularly the Blue Mosque and the Haghia Sophia opposite. The show lasted over forty minutes, and used the voices of Marius Goring and other notables, plus a symphony orchestra and great lighting effects over the mosque.
After the show we felt exhilarated and hungry. At a nearby open-air restaurant we had a three course meal. During our meal two girls about six or seven tried to sell us little wooden spinning tops. The waiter wanted to shoo them away, saying that they were professional hustlers, but we could not refuse the huge dark eyes and poor grubby dresses. However I was determined to get a good deal and bargain with them until I got one for 1,000,000 lira, about Australian $1.50. I was pleased until we were told by my son later that he had got three for 1,000,000 lira. Ah well, at least I found out that I am not an ‘ace’ negotiator. As we finished our meal we found that at the next table were two couples from Narrabri in New South Wales. Narrabri is about four hours drive from our home in Bathurst. We exchanged details about our travels, and then Sheila and I headed back for the hotel at the end of day two, our first real full day in Istanbul.
Day three started with a huge breakfast again, and this day I was tempted enough by the cold meats to add some to my plate along with figs, plums, grapes, yoghurt etc.
Our first visit for the day was the Basilica Cistern located beneath the north east corner of the square that is in front of the Blue Mosque and Haghia Sophia.
This huge underground water storage cistern, is a beautiful example of Byzantine engineering, and was cited by our travel agent Alexandra Wirawawan from Flight Centre, as a site not to be missed. Alex was correct. This huge water storage system was created during the reign of Justinian in 532 AD, mainly to provide water for the inhabitants of the Great Palace on the other side of the Hippodrome. In Byzantine times the present day area called the Sultanahmet, which houses the Blue Mosque etc, was the site of the Great Palace. The palace was built in stages, beginning in the 4th century during the reign of Constantine. It was enlarged in 532 by Justinian, and again further in the 9th century by Basil I. It was abandoned in the second half of the 13th century in favour of the Blachernae Palace. With regard to the Hippodrome, little is left of the gigantic stadium that once stood in the heart of the Byzantine city of Constantinople. It was originally created by Emperor Septimus during his rebuilding of the city in the 3rd century AD. Constantine enlarged the Hippodrome and connected the royal box to the near-by Great Palace. The silver tails have always loved their corporate boxes for the races. It is thought that the stadium held up to 100,000 people. There are enough remains of the Hippodrome, in what now is a public park, to get a sense of its scale and importance to Constantinople.
The road around the park follows the line along which the chariots would have raced, (Hippo is Latin for horse). One can still see some of the arches that would have marked the curved ends of the Hippodrome. Along the centre line of the stadium site are obelisks and columns from ancient Egypt and Greece. Conspicuous by its absence is the column which once stood where the tourist information office is now located. This column was topped by four bronze horses that were pillaged during the fourth crusade and taken to St Mark’s in Venice. “So please send it back”.
However three ancient columns remain. The Egyptian Obelisk which was built in 1500 BC, and stood outside of the City of Luxor in Egypt until Constantine had it brought to his city This column is broken and is probably about one third of its original height, but one can still see the beautiful carving. Next to it is the Serpentine Column believed to date from 479 BC, which was bought or should I say brought from Delphi in Greece. The heads of the serpents were knocked off in the 18th century by a drunken Polish nobleman. You just can’t trust European tourists.
The third, an obelisk, is of unknown origin in terms of date etc, but is usually referred to as the Column of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, after the Emperor who had it restored in the 10th century AD. It is sometimes called the Brazen Column as it was once thought to have been sheathed in bronze. Its dilapidated state owes much to the fact that young Janissaries would scale the column as a display of their bravery. The only other structure in the Hippodrome is a domed fountain that commemorates the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Istanbul in 1898.
The Hippodrome was the scene of one of the bloodiest events in Istanbul’s history, outside of war.
In 532 a brawl between rival chariot-racing teams developed into, the Nika Revolt, during which much of the city was destroyed. The end of the revolt came when an army of mercenaries, under the command of Justinian’s general Belisarius, massacred an estimated 30,000 people trapped in the Hippodrome. Now that is what I call zero tolerance of sports hooligans.
But I digress, in 1453 Constantinople was conquered, but it was not until the 16th century that the Ottomans discover the cistern, after people were found to be collecting water, and even fish by lowering buckets through holes in the floors of their basements. Now visitors tread wooden walkways, to the sound of classical music and dripping water. The cistern roof is held up by 336 columns, each over 8 metres high.

Inside the ‘cistern’
At many sites in the cistern are modern works of art suspended from the ceiling forming parts of a sound and light show at each site. Some are very futuristic, and I thought a bit out of context, but I could admire the talent that created them. At the far end of the cistern in terms of location and subject, two columns rest on stone heads of Medusa. These bases are evidence of plundering by Byzantines of earlier monuments. “Bloody tourists again”. They are thought to mark a nymphaeum, a shrine to water nymphs, but no-one knows in which country.
Haghia Sophia is in the background and the Blue Mosque in the foreground.

The logical place to visit next was the Haghia Sophia, which is about 100 metres from the exit of the cistern. The ‘Church of Holy Wisdom., Haghia Sophia is amongst the world’s greatest architectural achievements. More than 1,400 years old, it is a very tangible example of the skills and sophistication of the 6th century Byzantine capital, and has surely had a significant influence on architecture since that time. It was inaugurated by Justinian in 537. In the 15th century it was converted by the Ottomans into a mosque. To look up to the top of the central dome a height of 56 metres from the floor, gave both Sheila and I a feeling of vertigo as our eyes tried to adjust to the perspective. It is now designated as a museum, and the display of Christian and Muslim décor could take a day to investigate and appreciate. It is awe inspiring for the huge uncluttered space under the main dome.

Inside the Haghia Sofia

When one considers that this was all built without the advantages of modern machinery one can’t help think that we have not really accomplished very much by comparison. From there we crossed the square to the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque takes its name from the mainly blue Iznik timework decorating its interior.
Blue Mosque in the foreground.
It is justifiably one of the most famous religious buildings in the world. As you walk around one gets a great feeling of serenity, which was at is most magical though the previous night, when it is floodlit and circled by the seagulls. Sultan Ahmet I commissioned the mosque and it was built between 1609 – 16 by Mehmet Aga, the imperial architect of the time.
The splendour of the plans provoked great hostility at the time, especially because a mosque with six minarets was considered a sacrilegious attempt to rival the architecture of Mecca itself. But Sultan Ahmet was determined to leave a greater monument that the Haghia Sophia which casts its baleful eye upon it from across the square.
Haghia Sophia

In my mind Sultan Ahmet succeeded in many ways and although the dome of Haghia Sophia is impressive because of its size, it looks quite dowdy both inside and outside, compared to the Blue Mosque. The sheer elegance of the Blue Mosque on the outside is excellent. But once you go inside it takes one’s breath away, and it does not seem possible that human beings have created and maintained such a beautiful edifice. Strangely this feeling is amplified by the crass behaviour of the French and German tour groups, who took no notice of the request for women to have their hair covered, and not to film people at prayer. These same tourists, then started to ridicule the requirement for men to wear cloths around their waists to cover their legs if they were wearing shorts. They started posing ‘flashing’ their legs, and laughing at the looks of concern from the Muslim worshippers. I felt quite angry, and wondered why they travel to experience different cultures when they have no respect for the different cultures.
I was going to make my feelings felt, when Sheila said it was not my responsibility to safeguard their culture and feelings, if they could tolerate the bad behaviour of the tourists then so should I.
However it did take the edge off the elation I felt in seeing one of the wonders of the world.
From the Blue Mosque we went back across the square, and around the back of the Haghia Sophia to visit the Topkapi Palace.
The Topkapi Palace was built between 1459 and 1465, by the order of Mehmet II shortly after his conquest of Constantinople.

Harem quarters in the Topkapi Palace.

It is not a single building, it is a series of buildings or pavilions contained by four enormous courtyards, said by some to be a stone version of the tented encampments from which the nomadic Ottomans had emerged. First of all we went in to what used to be the kitchens in which is a significant display of porcelain. From there we went into the treasure pavilion that included the famous Topkapi dagger that is encrusted with huge emeralds etc. There is also a gold plated throne studded with gems and other exquisite thrones covered in pearls and precious stones.
But the pavilion that had the greatest impact upon us was the one that contains the religious artefacts. In this small pavilion there is hair from the beard of Mohamed, some of his teeth, clay casts of his footprints, and also his bow. The thing that also was ‘mind-blowing’ was what looked like the right arm of a golden suit of armour. On the back of the hand was a little open door about 2.2 cm square. Through the open door one could see the bones. This was the right arm of St John The Baptist. In the same display case was the top of his skull that had been edged with pearls and precious stones.
I suspect that they were relicts that had been captured from the Knights of St John when they were banished from the Isle of Rhodes by the Ottomans in the 16th century. But the ‘thing’ that had the biggest impact was completely without any pearls or precious stones.
It was a plain stick of wood about a 1.5 metre long, and about as thick as my thumb. It was the staff of Moses. Just thinking about the history behind this very simple item was very moving. We were not the only ones to feel the impact of what we were seeing. There was an elderly Muslim, who I suspect had never been before to see these relicts, and she was moved to tears and prayers, as she viewed the display of hair from the beard of Mohamed etc. Her son appeared to be embarrassed by her emotionality, but her grandchildren comforted and supported her. We thought it was great to see the impact and tears of joy, and this experience that obviously meant so much to her in her faith.
I was also thrilled to see the uniforms of the various Sultans including those of Suleyman I ‘the magnificent’ who lived from 1520 –1666 and presided over the major expansion of the Ottoman empire from Vienna to Morocco and fostered a ‘golden age’ of artistic achievement. His is a key person in one of my favourite books about the siege of Malta in 1565, when his army and navy suffered one of their rare defeats when the Knights of St John resisted the siege. The Knights of St John had eventually moved to Malta after they were banished from Rhodes. Their defeat of the Ottoman army and navy was largely due to the leader of the Knights at that time, Grand Master La Valette after whom the Maltese City of Valetta is named. After their failure to conquer Malta, the remainder of the fleet and the army were obliged to enter the Golden Horn during darkness to save the Sultan the embarrassment of having the city see his defeated army return. Though from my reading of the history a large part of the blame for the defeat must rest with the Sultan. Who, because of court intrigues appointed a son-in-law, Admiral of the Fleet and in joint control of the invasion; with one his very experienced generals in charge of the army. This joint control was a recipe for disaster and it proved to be so, but that is all another story, that might get told if I ever get back to Malta again.
About 16.30 we joined what, I think was the last group for the day that are escorted though the harem quarters. Virtual tours via: http://www.business-with-turkey.com/tourist-guide/
At the same time there was a French guide talking his group through the harem quarters, and he made a thorough pest of himself, as he talked long and loud over the top of our guide, a Turkish lady who was giving us a very informative tour in English. About halfway through she lost her temper, and shouted at him to stay away from our group, much to our relief.