Our final morning, we made a beeline to Topkapi Palace, hidden first behind an impressive set of exterior walls, through which one passes through the Imperial Gate:
And then another set of more modest interior ones, entered through the Gate of Salutation:
The grounds offered a cool oasis to the stone-clad urban environment outside the walls.
The Library of Sultan Ahmmed III, a prime example of 18th-century Ottoman architecture.
The 15th-century Audience Hall
A fragment of Piri Reis’ intriguing and controversial 1513 map, which includes remarkably accurate depictions of the Caribbean and South American coast, despite the map’s creation just 3 decades after Columbus discovered America.
A view of the Golden Horn from the Iftar Pavilion:
The Yerevan Kiosk – a pavilion fronted by a fountain meant for religious retreat.
The Baghdad Kiosk built circa 1638 to commemorate the Baghdad Campaign of Murad IV.
Its interior is meant to depict an ideal Ottoman room.
Which apparently required a huge couch.
And some attendance, natch.
The palace’s Imperial Council Hall, with the Tower of Justice atop. Originally built in the late 15th century and restored in the 17th after a harem fire, the Imperial Council, led by the Grand Vizier, met here.
The palace kitchens – the largest in the Ottoman Empire, with a capability to feed 4000 people.
The palace museum, home to some pretty cool examples of Islamic arms and armor from the Ottoman period.
And, on the way out, but still on the grounds, the forlorn husk of Hagia Irene, Istanbul’s second largest church after Hagia Sophia. The Romans constructed a temple on this spot in the 4th century, but this wooden structure was superseded by a stone structure before this, too, was replaced by a much larger Byzantine basilica in the mid 500s after its predecessor was destroyed during the Nika riots of Justianian’s reign. (Hagia Sophia suffered a similar fate and Justinian had this rebuilt in grander fashion at the same time.)
Unlike the typical Ottoman habit of turning churches into mosques, Hagia Irene was converted to a gun depot.
The cross mosaic in what may be an apse(?) – It was really hard to tell, and Byzantine churches had different layouts than Latin Christian churches, with their nave, transept, apse structure that wasn’t apparent here – was created during the reign of Leo III the Isaurian in the first half of the 8th century (we add this detail only so was can say “Leo the Isaurian” which has a vaguely Ghostbusters’ Gozer the Gozerian vibe to it).
At the Istanbul Archeological Museum just a hundred yards downhill from Topkapi Palace an impressive (like 12 feet?) statue of the Egyptian god Bes, found on Cyprus where he was popular with the Phoenician colonizers.
Statue of Emperor Hadrian found on Crete, and shown squishing his conquered foe.
Reconstruction of the stratified layers of sequential building and destruction of Troy, located elsewhere in Turkey, but highlighted through a pretty impressive wing in the museum.
Some cool ancient Greek sarcophagi.
Even cooler Greco-Persian Sarcophagus of Sidamara – at 32 tons, the heaviest sarcaphogas ever found – from Anatolia.
After dinner drinks and snacks in ANOTHER cistern, this one converted into a really cool restaurant.
Which featured live music – great end to our stay in Istanbul.
Next up: the cavernous (literally) cornucopia of Cappadocia!
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