Part One, Istanbul

Part One: Istanbul, Turkey

After a short transfer at London's Heathrow Airport on British Air, the first stop on our adventure was Istanbul.

Istanbul's two most recognized landmarks:

Sultan Ahmet Camii
(Blue Mosque)

Aya Sofya
(Sancta Sophia - Church of the Divine Wisdom)

Sultan Ahmet I wanted to build a mosque that rivaled Justinian's church.
It was designed by Mehmet Aga and built from 1606 to 1616, a thousand years after the Aya Sofya.

The Aya Sofya was built by Emperor Justinian in 537 AD.
It was a Christian church until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 when it was converted into a mosque.

As you enter the Blue Mosque, each successively taller dome makes you look higher up, closer to heaven.

The inside of Aya Sofya. There are no longer any services inside, but people still worship at the Blue Mosque.

The ceiling inside is covered with mosaics and a GIANT chandelier hangs from the center.

The Aya Sofya was all under construction or restoration.

The inside is full of stained glass windows and tourists with no shoes on!

A mosaic from the 14th century, uncovered after the iconoclastic Islamic militants covered all the images with plaster.

We took a boat tour up the Bosphorus and went under the first bridge to connect two continents. Europe is on the left and Asia is on the right.

At the narrowest point in the Bosphorus there is another bridge and the Rumeli Hisari or "Fortress of Europe".

After the boat tour we visited a carpet factory where they were making silk thread from silkworm cocoons.

Istanbul is just crawling with cats. There are thousands and thousands of cats all over the city.
They often beg for food at the sidewalk cafes.

Mom and I visited the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art. There were some really old really HUGE carpets.

The Grand Bazaar is a covered market of 4000 shops, mosques, banks, police stations and restaurants.

We checked our e-mail at an Internet cafe (of course, there were cats checking their e-mail too!).

We went shopping at the Egyptian or Spice Bazaar.

Did you know that "Egyptian" and "corn" are the same word in Turkish?

We took a Turkish bath in a Hamam built in 1584. And, no, I did not take my camera into the Hamam, I scanned this picture from a postcard. There is a huge HEATED marble table in the middle, under the dome. The women and men bathe seperately and we both got a bath and a massage.

Topkapi Palace was the home of the Sultans from 1453 until 1839. The palace is huge, but the Sultan's toilet was still just a hole in the ground! Albiet, it's a marble hole with gold faucets for the water.

Our airplane left Istanbul at 10pm and made an unscheduled stop in Ankara. So we didn't get to Turkmenistan until 6am instead of 3:45am.

Continue on...

Part Two

Mary and Ancient Merv, Turkmenistan

Part Three

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Part Four

Around Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Return to the Turkmenistan Home Page.

Return to Doug's Home Page.

E-mail Doug.

Sultan Ahmet Camii (Blue Mosque)		Aya Sofya (Sancta Sophia - Church of the Divine Wisdom)
Sultan Ahmet I wanted to build a mosque that rivaled Justinian's church. It was designed by Mehmet Aga and built from 1606 to 1616, a thousand years after the Aya Sofya.		The Aya Sofya was built by Emperor Justinian in 537 AD. It was a Christian church until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 when it was converted into a mosque.
As you enter the Blue Mosque, each successively taller dome makes you look higher up, closer to heaven.		The inside of Aya Sofya. There are no longer any services inside, but people still worship at the Blue Mosque.
The ceiling inside is covered with mosaics and a GIANT chandelier hangs from the center.		The Aya Sofya was all under construction or restoration.
The inside is full of stained glass windows and tourists with no shoes on!		A mosaic from the 14th century, uncovered after the iconoclastic Islamic militants covered all the images with plaster.