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Scenes from Istanbul

Everywhere we looked, there were fascinating scenes of life and history in Istanbul.

Emily took this photo that I love because of the Turkish Delight shop, the old man playing the sar (?), and one of the street dogs of Istanbul.

The Istiklal Caddesi is a bustling shopping area of beautiful European-style buildings, a reminder that Istanbul is the city where Europe meets Asia.

             

There were areas that looked just like San Francisco!

These women make the Turkish version of crepes, which are then filled with delicious combinations of cheese, spinach, cheese, meat, more cheese, veggies, and/or cheese.

And Doner meat (like we see at gyro stands here) rules the day in Turkey.

At first, I thought the reason the bazaars were so clean is because they’re for tourists. That may be so, but there were many locals shopping at the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. I enjoyed picking out teas and spices from a man who was obviously very proud of his high-quality goods.

We loved walking around Istanbul!

 

Istanbul Archeology Museum

The Istanbul Archaeology Museum opened in 1891 to try to slow the smuggling of antiquities out of Turkey. And what antiquities they’ve got!  Extras are even scattered around the grounds.

The collection of sarcophagi dates as far back as the 4^th century BC. The most famous one is the huge Alexander Sarcophagus. It didn’t actually contain Alexander the Great—it depicted his career in great detail. You can even see some of the original paint!

But I was touched more by the Mourning Women sarchophagus.

Two ancient temples were reconstructed with remnants of their friezes and amazing Roman mosaics.

One building on the site is a magnificent tile museum, housing gorgeous examples of Turkish tile work.

Among the treasures in the Museum of the Ancient Orient building:

One tablet of The Treaty of Kadesh, the oldest recorded peace treaty:

The Ishtar Gate, built by Nebuchadnezzar in 575 BC:

A cuneiform tablet from 2700BC, among the world’s first known writing examples: 

And a tablet from the 6^th century AD, that talks about Jesus and Christianity:

We were amazed and overwhelmed.

 

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

One of the highlights of our trip was the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. This beautiful cathedral’s third incarnation (built in 537) signaled to the world that Constantinople was the center of Eastern Christianity. It was the largest cathedral in the world for 1000 years.

Some of the beautiful Byzantine mosaics were destroyed by Latin soldiers during the Fourth Crusade, and others were covered with stucco by Muslims. Luckily, this helped preserve them. The face of one of the angels has been uncovered, but the other three are still covered with stucco and iron.

 

         

The mosaic depicting Empress Zoe presenting Constantinople to Jesus gives rise to many legends about why the faces were painted over. My favorite is that the original depicted her first husband, which was painted over with the face of her second husband, and then her third. She was supposedly vain, so I assume she also had her face repainted to be more flattering. Whichever is the case, it’s a lovely work of art.

In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and converted the Hagia Sophia to a mosque, adding minarets and the huge Islamic calligraphy discs, and replacing the altar with a mihrab pointing to Mecca.

This mix of Christian and Islam elements was really interesting to us because we saw the opposite juxtaposition in southern Spain: the Catholic church constructed chapels in the middle of huge Moorish mosques.

We admired the exterior from different views and in different light.  It never failed to impress us.