Topkapi Palace

Posted on July 9, 2006 by david

turkey/istanbul/topkapi/

After visiting the two other important monuments of Istanbul yesterday, I decided to visit the most important today. The Topkapi palace used to be the Sultan’s residence and administrative center for almost 400 years from 1465 to 1853.

I woke up early and got there at the opening because I wanted to see the Harem. The Harem can only be seen on a tour and hence, there are a limited numbers of tickets sold each day. I arrived so early that I got on the first tour :). It was interesting walking along the corridors where the women of harem and the Eunuchs used to live hidden from the world.

I then resumed my self guided tour of the impressive palace and went on from one surprise to another.

The palace architecture and the monuments are already worth the visit in themselves. I really liked the Council hall and the chamber of petitions that are so richly decorated in order to impress whoever came to the palace. The group of monuments located in the North-West part of the palace overlooking the golden horn, is also part of my favorites. But the most impressive part of the visit is definitely the several expositions housed in the palace making it a De facto museum rivaling many great museums in the world by the importance and richness of the artifacts exposed.

The treasury was very interesting. It seems like it is the most visited too as I had to get in line to enter the first room and then had to follow along in order to get a chance to see each artifact for some seconds as the tourists behind me were waiting to get their own five seconds of viewing time. While I was getting gently pressured to move forward, I remembered my visit of the Crown Jewels in London where they installed treadmills on both sides of the display cases in order to streamline the flow of visitors. I was glad it was not the case here. Not sure I would be able to walk against the mill this time! 😉

The exposition of the Holy relics was a complete surprise for me as I had not realized before how important was the position of the Sultan in the Islamic world. I really liked the model of the Holy rock as it reminded me of my trip to Jerusalem. Even though I am not religious, it was very interesting to see all the objects related to Mohamed if only from a historical perspective. One thing that troubled me a little is the fact that many of these relics are swords. Not really what you expect when thinking about holy relics.

All in all, I spent 5 1/2 hours strolling around the palace with the tour book and audio guide in hands to check out everything there was to see.

I think it was one of the days that I got a bit out of control with respect to picture taking. I was definitely far from the oath I took at the beginning of the trip to not take too many pictures. Maybe I will need to go in therapy when I am back in the states! ïŠ

I had also planned to visit the museum afterwards but since it was already past 3PM and the museum closes at 5PM, I decided to postpone it for another day. I was not able to absorb anything else anyway so it was an easy decision.

Later the evening was not that cultural with France being beaten by Italy in the World Cup final. I had found a French flag and was trying to exhilarate the mostly pro-French crowd assembled at the hotel cafÃ©, but unfortunately it did not help at the end. Well, next time ;).

In the Courtyard of the Sultan

Posted on July 8, 2006 by david

I am back in Turkey. I arrived in Istanbul yesterday night and found a nice bed in a cool hotel in the backpackerâ€™s part of Sultanahmet.

From the rooftop terrace, I have a view of the Hagia Sofia on my right, the Blue Mosque on my left and the Bosphorus on the back and I only pay 20YTL a day for it. I am sure even the Sultan did not have it that good from his bedroom in the Topkapi Palace just up North from here!

Today, I went on a tour of Sultanahmet which has two of the major monuments of Istanbul I just mentioned.

I started by visiting the Hagia Sofya that used to be the largest church of the Bizantine empire and was converted to a Mosque by the Ottomans when they took the city in the 13th century. After fending off the scammers hanging out in the square separating the Hagia Sofya from the Mosque and at the entrance, I got into the monument that has been closed to all religious purpose after World War I. The first thing you notice is a huge scaffolding in the middle that seems to have been there forever. I discovered that it actually had been there for more than 20 years making it also kind of antique ;). The place is quite impressive and the restored mosaics are a sight not to be missed. It is interesting to note that the Muslims did not destroy these mosaics when they converted the place but just plastered them instead. Later on, one of the Sultans actually got two Italians to remove the plaster, restore them and reapply the plaster! I really like this story which tells a lot about the fact that the sultans did respect other religions and works of art in general.

During the visit, I did what I really like to do. I listened to the guides do their job :). It is always interesting to listen to several guides because it gives different perspectives on the same place. It is also funny to realize that sometimes they don’t have the same story and it just does not match! Especially in Egypt, it was interesting to see that some of the guides clearly did not know what they were talking about. The best is when you score a National Geographic tour guide as they are usually historians or archeologists and it is always very educative. Understanding 3 languages is definitely an advantage in this situation as I can sneak into English, French and Spanish tours. I have wished sometimes that I understood German and Italian, when the only guides around were talking these languages so it might be a good reason to push me to learn them.

Anyway, I digress! Try it for yourselves next time you go somewhere. It can be a lot of fun.

So I was listening to these guides and I learned this time how the words Mohamed and Allah were written, so I can now recognize them when I get into a mosque.

After that, I went around checking the hippodrome with its three columns and a cistern called the Basilica Cisterna. It used to provide water for the Topkapi palace located close by and it is now open to the public. Visiting it is fun and different, a bit like visiting the Catacombs in Paris.

I went around a bit more but it was so hot that I retreated to the hotel! I hung out there for a while until the sun got a bit lower. I then decided to resume my tour by going to visit the less important sites of Sultanahmet. It seems not many people do that and I found myself out of the beaten path. The Constantine Column was hidden by a scaffolding so no luck there.

It took me some time to find the Mehmet Pasa Mosque which was actually closed with no tourists in sight. I checked out the outside and was leaving when a guy came by and opened the door for me. He told me not a lot of people were visiting the place and they closed the doors to prevent looting. I understood the precaution when I saw the interior with very fine Iznik tiles. Also, they have this small piece of green stone that is supposed to come from the Kabaa in Mecca. No pictures allowed though so you won’t see it here!

The last place I wanted to visit was the Church of Sergius and Bacchus located South of the district. I kind of got lost when looking for it. At this time I met two female tourists that seem to be lost and a bit concerned as well. It is true that we were not in the touristy part of the district anymore and the place looked more like Middle-East to me than Europe with almost only men in the streets. And in this situation, two blonde girls cannot go unnoticed. The girls had a good map so we managed to find out where we were and where they should go. I also tried to make them feel better about the situation.

I walked around some more but could not find the church so I ended up watching a soccer game between some Turkish teenagers for 20 minutes. It is funny how a soccer game looks the same in every country! I guess disputes, unfair plays and fights on the field are universal. And it is not the behavior of some of the star players that will help make things better!

I finally found the church but it was being renovated so it was closed to the public! It is funny how one can get frustrated when a monument is closed or hidden behind scaffolding.

Later, I decided to visit the Blue Mosque since it is open all day. It was peaceful as most of the tourists had deserted the place and only a handful of faithful tourists were there.

Well, this whole tour allowed me to finally get an authentic feel for the real Sultanahmet as I was starting to get the impression it was only inhabited by tourists and backpackers!

At the end of the day I went back to my rooftop terrace. The Blue Mosque on my left and the Hagia Sofia on my right were completely floodlit with scores of seagulls playing and bathing in the light. It makes for a great sight. I loved it. Yes, I am now sure the Sultan did not have it that good!

A Visit To the City of Athena

Posted on July 7, 2006 by david

I leave today for Istanbul but before that, I wanted to see the ancient Athens.

So yesterday night, I drew a plan for touring everything of importance this morning. I took the map and the guide that the airport hotel had given me and I created, in my opinion, the most optimized itinerary.

I will not describe all the monuments, but if you are curious and want to get an idea of what I plan to visit, here is the itinerary:

Hotel – Mitropolis – Tower of the winds (10)- Roman Agora (19) – Acropolis – Ancient Agora (11+9) – Thesseion – Pnyka hill – Filopapou hill – Lyssicrates monument (17) – Hadrian’s Gate (14) – Temple of Zeus (21) – Athens Stadium – Zappeion – Presidential residence (66) (was not planned initially) – Parliament building – Sindagma – Hotel

I woke up early, checked out of the hotel, and started walking toward the first stop at 8:30AM. I was not back at the hotel until 3PM. I was happy but quite tired and with a minor case of headache due to some dehydration and insulation.

I really liked the tower of the winds which Ledi and I had seen by night. We were wondering what it was when we first saw it. I said that based on the the high-relief characters it might have been a representations of Icarus. Well, I was wrong. I guess it is what happened when you want to look smart in front of a girl but you do not know what you are talking about! It is an octagonal base building with a personification of the winds blowing from the direction the front is facing. It seems like it was used as a clock and calendar too!

The Acropolis is just grand. It towers the whole city and it is not rare to turn around the corner of a street and just get a glimpse of one of its monuments. But once you are walking on it, it is a bit disappointing as most of the buildings are surrounded by scaffolding and you cannot get inside the Parthenon. Also, it was very crowded as is to be expected. The museum there is very nice with some great artifacts that were removed from the monuments in order to protect them.

The Roman and Ancient Agora did not impress me as much. Well except that I was walking where once Sophocles and Aristotle taught!

The views of the Acropolis from the Pnyka and Filopapou hills are definitely worth the hike. I got lost a bit but eventually found my way to the top of these two hills.

The temple of Zeus is also quite a sight and can definitely rival other large temples I have seen in my trip like the temple of Zeus in Jerash and the temple of Jupiter in Baalbek. You also have a good view of the Acropolis from there.

It was definitely rewarding to walk that much. The views of Athens from the top of the three hills are also great showing how large and extended Athens is. Also, in a city where everything is a potential antiquity, I think Athens, unlike Alexandria for example, has stricken a good balance between the need to protect its historical monuments and the need to turn itself to the future.

All in all, Athens might be the most rewarding Hellenist/Roman city I have visited ,right up there with Jerash :).

They Just Don’t Get It

Posted on July 7, 2006 by david

Sometimes people don’t get it.

Let me explain what I mean. Yesterday, I was looking at how I would go from Athens to Istanbul. Taking a ferry back to Turkey was my first idea since it did not cost me too much the first time and I liked the idea of stopping at another island on the way.

Because I did not know which ferries to take, I thought I would stop by at a travel agency to ask about my options and get help booking the ferries. I guess that was a mistake!

I found a place located close to Athens’ main square. Unfortunately I was not received very well. The clerk was very tense from the moment I entered. When I asked her how I could get to Turkey by ferry, she said she could get me a ferry to one of the islands and then I would have to book the ticket from that island to Turkey by myself.

That is fine, however when I started asking about how to book the second ticket, the agent became plain rude and sharply responded that she was not tourist information and I should know how to get where I wanted!

Well, I understand if she did not have the information, but man why be rude about it. Furthermore, if I knew what ferry to take and simply wanted to book a ticket, I could just use the internet and not the services of a travel agent. I think in our new age of Internet, travel agents must offer more than just booking services to be competitive. Information and help is expected and good service is essential. During my trip I have dealt with many agents that have gotten the idea, but it looks like this lady has not.

Anyway, I told her she must be having a bad day and just left. This shop was not going to get my money! The not so funny part was today when I happened to be passing by the shop again. I heard the same lady having a fit and yelling at the other employees. Everybody just looked miserable. Then, a tourist walked in asking for help completing a transaction she had initiated on the internet. The lady refused to help this tourist in any way, even though there were no other clients and the 4 clerks were idle, since they were not going to make any money from it. If you ask for my opinion, helping the tourist would have been a sure way for them to make themselves a good name. I just wonder how these guys are staying in business.

At the end, I logged into the internet and booked a flight from Athens to Istanbul with Olympic Airways for later today. It is fast and I don’t have to deal with any travel agent :).

Getting a Feel for Athens

Posted on July 6, 2006 by david

Athens, like a lot of cities with a great past, can exhibit two faces based on what you are looking for. The ancient Athens dedicated to the cult of goddess Athena and the modern Athens dedicated to bringing Greece into the 21st century.

Today, I tried to get a feel mainly for the modern part. A lot of people had told me they did not like Athens as a city so I was expecting a dirty and crowded place. But I did not get such an impression at all. I actually found the city quite nice, reminding me in a lot of ways of Paris (maybe that is why I liked it).

The paved streets West of Sindagma square are a perfect shopper’s heaven with scores of fashion and accessories boutiques.

The districts of Plaka, Monastiraki and Psiri, which are all located at the foot of the Acropolis, are densely packed with restaurants, nice and trendy cafes, night clubs, art galleries, souvenir shops and everything else needed for entertainment. It is where I ended up watching the semi-final between France and Portugal and where I got my daily souvlakis (gyros).

Later, I dedicated the rest of the day to visiting the National Archeological Museum.

It is very impressive, as to be expected, with an extensive sculpture section that covers more than half the museum, exhibiting some great items like the Aphrodite and Pan sculpture. The bronze collection is also very nice featuring great items like the jokey of Artemision and an antique mechanism of an astronomical and calendar calculator dating from the 1st century AD.

I was especially attracted by the section on the Mycenaean civilization which I don’t remember having studied at school. It presented the finds from a group of tombs called Grave Circle A at Mycenae. It is interesting to point out how rich in gold these findings were. After learning a bit more, I was fascinated to find out how greatly this civilization has influenced the whole Greek mythology that forms the base of the Hellenistic culture. Characters like Perseus and Agamemnon are said to be related or at least based on important people living in Mycenae.

Tomorrow, I plan to explore more of the ancient face of Athens by extensively visiting its main monuments.

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Monthly Archives: July 2006

Topkapi Palace

In the Courtyard of the Sultan

A Visit To the City of Athena

They Just Don’t Get It

Getting a Feel for Athens