Palaces, Harems, Mosques and Tulips

Day # 2

Palaces, Harems, Mosques and Tulips 

I woke up at 11:15 pm after sleeping for 90 minutes and was wide-awake with excitement, unable to go back to sleep. Outside our window there was the hubbub of people partying on the street (and usually smoking outside restaurants because the President banned smoking in public places).  I thought after missing the prior night’s sleep I would sleep like a baby but either jet lag or the cappuccino I had with dinner prevented this. Our restaurant and grocery store experience seemed perplexed by my asking for decaffeinated coffee so feeling coffee deprived I relented after 9 months of abstention and had an authentic cappuccino. Oops ..

Around 11:30 next morning after being up most of the night I woke up Seth who luckily had a great night’s sleep and we set off to explore.

We began by going to the Sultanahemet neighborhood, which has the highest concentration of key sites in its Old Town. We made our first tourist mistake of hailing a taxi rather than taking the metro or light rail, only to be stuck in constipated traffic for an hour and paying infinitely more than 3 TL for a much faster ride ($1.50). Even walking would have been faster. While all the sites I will list below are well described in tour books I will cover a few things I learned in order to get them into long term memory ~ I hope.

Underground Cistern – This dates back to 6^th century A.D and is an amazing underground stroll of a massive reservoir. It is the size of 2 football fields, has 336 columns, which support a brick ceiling, and was originally built to provide precious water. The water is carried 12 miles to this cistern by pipes and aqueducts. It is the setting for the Bond Movie -From Russian with Love. 

Interesting for me were 2 recycled Medusa heads lying on ground sideways and upside down under pillars. I recall pictures of Medusa with hair made of snakes and stories of her turning people into stone. Perhaps she was put here under a column in a dark area for a reason.

Blue Mosque – The huge number of tourists lined up for Hagia Sophia diverted us to the Blue Mosque next which has its dome modeled after Hagia Sophia. This was built in early 1616 in 7 years and its name comes from the rich blue color of hand made ceramic tiles, which dominate the interior. There are 6 minarets, which is a sign of great wealth for this sultan. Interesting for me was that the main hall for men for prayer was enormous while there was a miniscule place behind barriers for women to pray.  Apparently the reason for this is that men can concentrate on God without distraction of women while women are more comfortable without men sitting behind them. Hmm… I don’t buy this. 

Hagia Sophia – This was perhaps my favorite place of everything we saw on this day. This originally was Constantinople’s Great Church for centuries (similar to Vatican in Rome). It was later converted to an Ottoman mosque by adding minarets.  It was built in the 6^th century and its design has influenced architects for generations. It has an enormous central dome that would fit the Statue of Liberty minus the torch. This giant dome has collapsed twice and been rebuilt and now has clear glass windows at base of the dome which are structured to pass weight onto piers at corners. The architect attempted to have a vast interior space independent of walls and I think it achieved this look but still it has 100 columns. I especially liked the Byzantine mosaics of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child made from finely cut pieces in the 13^th century.

Hippodrome – Originally built in the 4^th century A.D. this was Constantinople’s primary venue for Roman chariot races. Like football stadiums it can hold 100,000 people.  But now it has become a square linking Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. It is a place for tourists who view the Egyptian obelisk brought from Karnak upper Nile in 4^th century A.D. This obelisk has a Byzantine marble base with reliefs of Emperor and family watching the Hippodrome chariot  races.  There is also a column of 3 serpents twisted together brought from Greece which commemorates Greek victory against Persians. The serpents’ heads mysteriously disappeared 300 years ago.

Topkapi Palace – An Ottoman sultan chose this beautiful location overlooking the Sea of Marinara, the Bosphorus, & Golden Horn to build his administrative center in 1470. Since then various sultans have gradually enlarged this residence into a home with intimate courtyards, tulip gardens, and kitchens.  In fact there are different kitchens for the sultan, the staff, others and even a kitchen for making deserts. The sultan had 20 chefs, 200 cooks, 100 desert experts would spend fortunes on buffet-style receptions. 


Seth and I toured this palace with all its courtyards and particularly enjoyed the massive tulip gardens which were in perfect bloom. I learned that the tulip era began in the 18^th century when there was an Ottoman 
Renaissance, a time free from the worries of war when gardening caught on with “tulip mania” sweeping the country. A single bulb (brought from central Asia) could sell for 30 ounces of gold. The sultan at that time known as “Tulip Sultan” was obsessed with his private garden, which had rare bulbs. Later when war broke out people resented tax money being spent in this way and burned down the tulip beds. 

The Harem – Visting the Sultan’s harem which consists of 20 rooms with stunning tile work I learned that having a harem is not exactly a round the clock sex orgy with beautiful slaves but a carefully administered social institution.  First of all there were black eunuchs slaves from North Africa educated to serve the Harem and protect the concubines. The women did not tempt them because slave traders had castrated them. Then there were several hundred concubines who kept the house but were not sexually active with the Sultan. However, the Sultan’s mother (or wife) would select 4 “favorites” with whom the Sultan could be more familiar. The Sultan could only have sex with chosen favorite women and not anyone he wanted. He could have 4 wives. The harem’s primary role was to provide future heirs to Ottoman throne and the Sultan’s mother (mother sultan) had tremendous power and with the wives essentially ran the Ottoman empire ~ called the Reign of Ladies.  We toured many courtyards for concubines, mother sultans, wives, and the favorites. Interestingly mother sultan’s private apartment was between the sultan’s quarters and his wives and she decided whom he slept with each night. Today polygamy is illegal in Turkey and legally women have equal rights with men including right to vote and run for office.

After ending this day learning of the Sultan’s secrets and feeling incredibly tired we again made the mistake of taking a cab home and ended up in a traffic jam with a cab driver who drove wildly. Feeling somewhat at risk we tried to put on our seat belts and found they didn’t work.