Istanbul - Post #3 The Hagia Sophia

So much to see in Istanbul! Here is another post! We learned that if we were going to miss the huge buses of tour groups for some of the big things we would need to get there really early. So it was with Hagia Sophia. It is located across from the "Blue" Mosque which makes it quite a picture from the water (you'll have to look at a later Istanbul post for that one!).

It doesn't seem like much from here but it's bigger than the mosque so it's quite impressive. Here is a picture of it from right in front to get more of an idea.

So, the Hagia Sophia is considered by many to be the "eighth" wonder of the world. It was completed in 537 as a church, then it was converted into an imperial mosque in 1453 and stayed a mosque until 1931. It became a museum in 1935. What you see now is the third building of the Hagia Sophia. When it became a mosque many of the mosaics were either removed or plastered over. The whole building has been under reconstruction since it was reopened as a museum to carefully repair what has been covered. In the next pictures you will see what I felt was a fascinating combination of Roman Catholic and Ottoman Muslim art in a classically Byzantine building.

Delaney and I entering the building.

We come around the corner and see the main sanctuary. Only half was open to the public. The other half was behind this huge wall of scaffolding. It was quite dark in the upper areas of the room since the lighting was so low.

Towards the front of the room you can see the mosaic that was plastered over of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

On either side of Mary were these really interesting looking angels who had their wings closed to apparently protecting the throne of heaven I found them quite fascinating but of course, the lighting was really bad.

Here, you see the alter where a priest would be during services.

Right next to it is the alter is the minbar where the imam would stand to deliver sermons. I found it interesting that they were both there.

On our way out the door we saw this mirror up above that made us turn around. What a beautiful mosaic this was!

 We then left the building thinking that we hadn't see it all. We must have missed something! Around the corner we saw these water spigots coming out of the building. It was interesting to find out that this is where people would come to find fresh water when it was a church but then when is was converted into a mosque many would cleanse themselves here prior to entering the mosque. I'm assuming it was still available for fresh water.

 

We went back in only to find a side door that took us upstairs. Wow! I'm glad we didn't miss it!

The view was breathtaking!

Look at how small the people are. This gives you an idea of how huge this building is!

There were mosaics they were in the process of uncovering. This one you weren't allow to take a picture with a flash.

I went around the corner only to see an up close of picture of the Virgin Mary and Jesus above the alter. I figure I was far enough away to use a flash and yes, I got yelled at but I sure did get a nice picture.

 Here is Janna taking her turn with the hole in the column. Just like in the Basilica Cistern, if you can get your hand all the way around your wish comes true! It was a stretch for her!

Day 2 Basilica Cistern

The Basilica Cistern is a must see when you travel to Istanbul.  The cistern is a large underground cavern that was constructed during the 6th century by Emperor Justinian.  It was designed to hold up to 100,000 tons of fresh drinking water for the city.   The cistern has been portrayed in many movies and films including the James Bond movie "From Russia With Love" and the Dan Brown Novel "Inferno".  The line for this attraction was very long, but luckily we were able to join a tour group at the last second and jumped ahead of the line.   This was one of our favorite places to visit!

 

Here are some of the network of columns that hold up the roof of the cistern.   The cistern measures approximately 450 by 250 feet and has hundreds of these columns supporting the roof. We were able to navigate the cistern by walking on a raised platform that had been constructed through the entire cistern.  Prior to the construction of the walkway boats were used to take visitors through.

 This is Delaney trying to twirl her thumb around the "weeping hole".  Legend says that the hole in the column weeps for all of those that died constructing the cistern.  If you can twirl your hand all the way around it is said that you will have good luck.

 Another shot of more of the columns.  The lighting really makes this a unique place, I cannot imagine how dark it would be if the power went out!

 The Romans added carp to the cistern to keep it clean.  Some of them were very big!

 This is one of the two Medusa head columns.   This one has the face pointing sideways and another one the face is upside down.  Nobody is really sure why the faces were situated this way, but it probably has to do with the legend of Medusa turning her victims to stone if you gazed into her eyes.  These column bases were not discovered until the cistern was drained. 

ISTANBUL! First night and Sultan Ahmed Mosque (The "Blue" Mosque)

Well, this will be the first blog of a few on our wonderful trip to Istanbul. First, I would strongly recommend traveling there if you have the opportunity. We were there for 5 days and only saw one section of Istanbul. There was so much we didn't see! I guess we'll have to go to Turkey again!

We arrived at about 4:00PM and checked into our hotel. The Hotel Historia was once an Ottoman Mansion. It was small and a little quirky but I would stay there again. The staff was wonderful, the breakfast was awesome and the room was clean so all was good. The hotel was also about 2-3 blocks away from many tourist attractions so walking was easy!

Our first night we realized that our Euros wouldn't work so we went in search of a cash machine for Turkish Lira. The first one we found was out of money so we had to look around a lot. This is when we got our first look at the Blue Mosque.

Once we found the bank machine we were off in search of dinner! We got stopped by a man asking if we wanted information about Istanbul and rugs. Little did we know we were in for a lesson about Carpets! We now know why Turkish Carpets are the best in the world. They are also VERY expensive. It was difficult to politely get out of the carpet shop! We also found that like many European cities it is common to see men outside of restaurants wanting you to look at their menu and make deals for dinner. We found one particular place that looked good and the "greeter" was nice. He also called Janna "Princess" and gave her a lollipop.
Here are pictures of our meal and Janna's treat. (Little did we know, pretty much EVERYONE called her Princess!!!)

 The waiter in the picture above brought this out for the table next to us. It was a clay pot that had fire all around it. He covered the top with foil and a rag, flipped it over and tapped around the ring at the bottom of the pot. It promptly broke and he put what was inside on their plates. Tim called this the original "dutch oven".

 Above is Delaney's meatballs. The long green things are these really mild roasted green peppers that I thought were really tasty. The rest of the family didn't like them.

 I had the shepherds plate. Rice in the middle, tomato based sauce on lamb, beef and chicken. Cooked on a steal wok like pan. Yes, it was good!

 Tim's lamb stew was quite good as well. The waiter said they only served traditional Kurdish food.

Princess Janna and her lollipop.

The next morning we went back to the Blue Mosque to take a look around. The tourist buses were already there. We saw people from all around the world! This mosque was finished in 1616 and was created to calm God after the war with Persia. It is called the blue mosque because of the hand painted blue ceramic tiles covering the walls inside. Since this was still an active mosque people were asked to be quiet, take off their shoes and women had to cover their heads. We expected this and so we had brought our own scarves. It was very crowded as well.

 It wasn't raining but it was misty and foggy.

 

We went through the gates and the mosque just seemed to get bigger and bigger!

 When we went into the courtyard and had to wait in line a little bit.

 After we took off our shoes and Delaney, Janna and I covered our heads this was one of the first things we saw.

 These pictures don't truly show you how HUGE the mosque is! The domed ceilings were almost fully tiled. I couldn't stop looking up. It was truly beautiful.

 Here we are all covered up.

 Tim and the girls.

 This was a really neat tree we saw just outside the mosque. We found that there are many of these hollowed out trees. They look like they are burned inside. I bet the are beautiful when the have leaves.

Across from the Blue Mosque is the famous Hagia Sophia. We went there the next day. This will be our next post!