Standing by the water, I noticed there were lots of jellyfish in it. Definitely not a place I would want to go swimming. Apparently this doesn't both some people, however, since a guy with a spear gun popped out of the water right by where we were standing. Kind of weird.
Our next stop was the Hippodrome, which used to be the center of life in Constantinople much the way the Forum was the center of life in Rome. If you're up on your Greek, then you're asking what the name has to do with horses. Well, this is also where all the chariot races and other forms of public spectacles used to be held. I was hoping to see a lot more of the Byzantine structures and ruins than was left. As was done with many other parts of the city, the Ottomans messed it up, destroyed it or built over it when they conquered Constantinople in 1453. Bummer. There were a few things left, though:
The Walled Obelisk:
The Serpent column (originally from the 5th century BC, Greek temple of Apollo at Delphi)
Obelisk of Thutmose III (built around 1490BC, originally from the Egyptian temple at Karnak):
Base of Thutmose III obelisk:
Some of this stuff, like the Thutmose III obelisk, was in amazingly good condition. Some of it, like the Serpent Column and Walled Obelisk, were in poor condition as a result of damage done to them by Crusaders passing through Constantinople or Ottomans.
Our next stop was the Blue Mosque, which was built over seven years and completed in 1616. It's also one of the biggest mosques in the world, and biggest landmarks in Istanbul. This was the first time I had been inside a mosque, so it was pretty interesting to watch people get ready for prayer, look around, etc. One of the differences you notice right away is that there are no paintings or sculptures which depict people or animals, because that is forbidden in Islam. As such, the only artwork you'll find is tiles with geometric shapes or calligraphy (usually something from the Koran).
You may have noticed in my pictures that a lot of the women (even the non-Turkish ones) seem to be wearing more clothing than they normally would at this time of the year. Well, for visiting mosques, you have to cover up. For men and women, you can't show your knees, so most people wear pants or long skirts. For women, you can't wear sleeveless clothing of any kind, and you can't show the slightest bit of chest skin (and I'm not talking about just cleavage, either). The women weren't required to wear scarves over their heads or anything like that, which surprised me. Shoes are also forbidden inside mosques, so we had to take them off and carry them with us when we went in.
Anyway, photos from the mosque:
On the left, you can see people washing their faces, hands and feet before prayer:
One of the six minarets, which are used to called Muslims to prayer:
Inside the mosque:
Exterior of the Blue Mosque:
The Blue Mosque was very impressive, but I couldn't help but feel that the Ottomans just weren't all that creative or advanced. When you look at the exterior of the mosque, it doesn't look all that different from Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom), the Christian church that's right across from it. Hagia Sophia was built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and completed in 537 AD. That's right, more than 1000 years before the Blue Mosque, and yet if you look at the Blue Mosque, it seems like both structures could have been built at the same time. For these reasons, I was more impressed with Hagia Sophia.
Exterior of Hagia Sophia (the minarets, which seem out of place, were added after the Ottomans conquered Constantinople and converted Hagia Sophia into a mosque):
I previously mentioned that artwork depicting people/animals is forbidden in Islam. So, when the Otttomans converted Hagia Sophia into a mosque, they plastered over all the Christian artwork. Since Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque some 70 years ago, some of that plaster has been removed, and well preserved mosaics have been uncovered. Note the Byzantine/Orthodox style, which is much different than the kind of art you'd see in Catholic churches:
If you're not up on your Greek, that's the emperor Constantine:
Other parts of the interior (you can tell what's Christian and what's Muslim):
I previously mentioned that our tour guide yapped too much and was repetitious, and Hagia Sophia was where it bothered me the most. He spent so much time repeating himself at the entrance and in a couple places inside that he ran out of time, and we were forced to leave after 15 minutes to keep to our schedule. I was really annoyed, because we weren't given any time to walk around and look at various things inside. The worst part was that keeping to our schedule meant that we were shuttled to a state-owned carpet/tile/art shop so we could spend ONE HOUR looking at carpets, watching someone make them, and being pressured to buy them. It's been a long time since I was that irritated. Major bummer.
After the carpet shop, we were taken to lunch at a hotel or something like that. We were given an appetizer course, which consisted of...well, I don't really know...some unusual salads and sauces and stuff. Most of it was pretty good, but we were never told any of the names, so I can't tell you much else. I think we were supposed to get a salad course, but that was probably skipped because we were behind schedule (and by now, you know the reason why). Our main course had some...um...meat and stuff in it. Man, it would have been nice to get more descriptions of what we were eating. I think we got baklava and a couple other sweet baked goods for dessert, and those were great. All the Turkish desserts we ate rocked, actually.
When we got out of lunch, we finally heard one of the things I was curious about: a Muslim prayer call. The calling went on for several minutes, and was pretty interesting to hear. It definitely added to the overall exotic vibe of Istanbul.
We were taken back to the ship after that, and thus ended our Istanbul adventure. Some thoughts on Istanbul:
- It's incredibly crowded, and the traffic is insane. Of course, what else would you expect when there are 15,000,000 people in the city?
- The mix of east and west is pretty fascinating. Some parts of the city look very modern and cosmopolitan; other parts look very old. As you can see by now, we spent most of our time in the old parts.
- Most of the Turkish people we met seemed nice enough, but since most of them were also working in shops with no prices posted anywhere, I didn't find them particularly trustworthy. Maybe I'm just a skeptic...
- Istanbul and Kusadasi (the other place in Turkey we visited) were cheaper than any of the other places we visited on our trip. Still not totally cheap, but cheaper than any place in Italy or Greece that we went.
- Turkey isn't as hardcore Muslim as other Muslim countries, so you don't see women wearing burkas and/or scarves everywhere, as you might expect. We did see this, but it wasn't the majority. Burkas were almost non-existent.
- It's amazing how much a tour guide can make or break a trip.
All in all, Istanbul was fascinating, and I'd definitely go back. It felt like we only scratched the surface, since we spent almost all our time at historical attractions.
No comments:
Post a Comment