Blue Mosque (Istanbul part 4 of 7)

Oh dear, I'm rapidly falling behind on posts. Last weekend, I took the Harry Potter train (also known as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, but Harry Potter train sounds more exciting, no?) from Whitby to Pickering, so I have photos from the train & from Whitby to share, plus this weekend, I'm heading off to the Lake District, and I still have tons of things to say about Istanbul! And I should be working on my dissertation. But who wants to do that? I have a limited attention span whilst trawling through records trying to trace lineages amongst patrons of Ely Abbey. I think that's understandable. Anyway, I'd best get writing. Today's mini history lesson/photo explosion is brought to you by the colour blue.

The Blue Mosque, or the Sultanahmet Camii as it is properly known, is located just across a plaza and park area from the Hagia Sophia.

Now is that a cool picture or what? Unlike the Aya Sofia, the Blue Mosque is an active mosque, so it does close to tourists during prayers periodically throughout the day, so you'll want to check the times before heading off to visit. Just be sure to actually check the mosque's signs, because if you're just milling around, you can be sure that a carpet salesman will chat you up and try to persuade you to visit their carpet shop since the mosque is closed for prayers anyway regardless of whether or not prayers are actually happening at the time. But when I was there, I had 20 minutes to kill anyway, so I figured I'd let one of them give me his spiel. As part of the Turkish carpet buying experience, you can expect tea and chit chat with the salesman (without charge, assuming it is a reputable establishment). According to my new friend Yavuz over at Onur Carpets (I have his card if anyone wants to buy a carpet, he's totally nice and speaks English very well), I am dreadfully ill-prepared for marriage. I should have started hand knotting a carpet when I was 12. But since I haven't, I should go back to see him to pick out a carpet when I'm ready to take the plunge. Anyway, I share this because that photo is taken from the top floor of his shop, where he has a little sitting area for the aforementioned tea and chit chat. You just cannot get pictures that nice from the street. Here, I'll prove it.

Before heading inside, check out the tomb of the Blue Mosque's eponymous founder, Sultan Ahmet.

The tomb houses Sultan Ahmet, his wife, and three of his sons. Sultan Ahmet is perhaps best known (Blue Mosque aside) for establishing Kafes, the Cage. Fratricide had become accepted practice among the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. In order to avoid messy wars of succession, new sultans were expected to execute their brothers (and potential rivals for the throne). Ahmet I created a new way of dealing with extra brothers/sons by creating the Cage, a special part of the Harem within Topkapi Palace, where these rivals to the throne were imprisoned along with deaf mute servants (I'm not entirely sure how well that worked out, but I guess hand gestures sufficed to get their point across) and a harem of concubines who had had their ovaries removed in order to prevent even more rival heirs from being born. In theory, this practice was an improvement over just killing off brothers, but in practice, the Cage resulted in a whole slew of messed up younger siblings, several of whom did end up taking the throne and came out basically insane- one liked to practice his archery using prisoners of war as targets, while another had 278 of his 280 concubines placed in sacks and drowned in the Bosphorus and just generally killed people left and right. Right, maybe we should get back to the more pleasant stuff.

Built between 1609 and 1616, the Blue Mosque gets its nickname from the hundreds of thousands of blue and white ceramic tiles featuring designs of lilies adorning its walls. The tiles come from Iznik, which was once called Nicaea for any Christian/Biblical scholars out there. Before entering, everyone must remove their shoes. Plastic baggies are provided for you to carry your shoes with you once you enter, and visiting is free, although donations are requested. Guidebook and signs at the visitors' entrance all proclaim that women must cover their heads before entering, but apparently that has recently been dropped. When I was there, headscarves were not necessary, but shoulders/upper arms need to be covered for women (so no cute little cap sleeve t-shirts or they'll give you a blue wrap to cover your arms with) and both men and women need to have shorts/skirts that come down past the knee (and ladies, no tights/leggings as pants, that totally doesn't fly) or they'll give you that blue wrap to wear as a skirt. I was actually kind of disappointed, because I was totally prepared and had a scarf and everything. Alas.

The combination of electric candles and daylight (not to mention reflective gold leaf and shiny tiles) makes for a challenging photography situation, at least I found it to be with my Canon PowerShot. Although you lose some of the effect of all the gold everywhere, I think they come out much nicer in black and white.

Anyway, this is part of the prayer area. They rope it off and don't let the tourists. This is also why they make you take your shoes off; during prayers, Muslims kneel on the carpets, so they'd prefer to keep the carpets as clean as possible.

Here's a better shot of the chandelier hanging over the prayer area and some of the stained glass windows.

I realize this is all kinds of not in focus, but at least you can get a sense of the blue-ness and sadly this is the best shot of the stupid tiles I was able to get. You can see how reflective they are, with light glimmering everywhere.

For westerners, the Blue Mosque is an easy baby step towards a greater understanding of Islam; the people manning the entrance & exit speak decent English and can explain the various dress requirements. The Mosque also publishes a really nice little pamphlet about Islam, describing their faith and correcting some common misconceptions. And if that isn't enough, there is a little booth inside staffed with an English speaker available to answer any questions you might have about Islam or the Blue Mosque itself. With the state of the world today, I think it is really important to try to understand different belief systems/religions/cultures. And I sort of feel like most people are willing to give that a shot, but it seems like the majority of people are sort of waiting for someone to come up and explain it to them, rather than going out and actively seeking answers to their questions, when there are plenty of resources out there, waiting to be used. There are other mosques in Istanbul considered to be more impressive architecturally or with more history to them, but the Blue Mosque is the big tourist draw and I think they handle it very well.

Random closing thought: prayers from the Blue Mosque are broadcast over a loudspeaker system audible throughout the Sultanahmet area, and while prayers are going on, the ATM machines in the plaza are turned off, and many businesses will pause operations. I recorded part of the prayers being broadcast, but fair warning, I'd listen rather than watch this because I totally didn't think to pan around _slowly_, so it kind of makes me motion sick to watch!

The Hagia Sophia/Aya Sofia (Istanbul part 3 of 7)

Hold on to your seats, because this might just be the longest post ever. But don't worry, most of it will be pictures :)

It's not exactly easy to get a picture of the outside of the church/mosque/museum because of the sheer size of the structure, so here's a couple of teasers.

The Hagia Sophia was built originally as a Christian church by the order of Emperor Justinian because the previous church on the site was destroyed by riots in 532 AD. The name Hagia Sophia means the "Church of the Divine Wisdom," and is one of the few churches not named in honor of a saint. When it was built, the Hagia Sophia was unrivaled for a thousand years: the scale and grandeur of the cathedral were a major symbol of Byzantine power and sophistication. During this time, the Hagia Sophia was the largest enclosed space in the world until the Cathedral of Seville beat it out in 1520.

One of the major ways the Hagia Sophia differed from all previous constructions is the dome.

The dome is 30 meters across and hovers over essentially empty space. All previous constructions had the dome supported by solid walls under it. You can get a better idea from the photo below.

Obviously the cathedral/mosque/museum has walls, but they are quite a way back from the edges of the dome, which hovers above sort of half-domes surrounding it. 20 years after construction was finished, the central dome collapsed (to be fair, it was the first construction of its kind and no one was really sure if the building would be able to support its weight. Pretty good work for "well, we THINK this should work...") and rebuilding work was carried out, which actually increased the height of the dome after the buttresses were shored up and made taller as well. From this rebuilding period on, it became a bit of a tradition to take out windows. I guess this was meant as a means of strengthening the building, but 1500 years of window removal has left the interior disappointingly dim and dark.

Anyway, flashfoward to 1204, when overenthusiastic soldiers on the Fourth Crusade sacked the cathedral. They divvied up the altar, carried off the cathedral's treasures, and stuck a prostitute on the patriarch's throne to sing and dance, mocking the practices of the eastern Byzantine (Orthodox) Church. In 1452, the Byzantines desperately sought Western Europe's aid in holding off the encroaching Turks, even agreeing to reunite Eastern Christianity with the Catholic Church, but Western Europe proved to be not so helpful, as the Turks conquered Constantinope in 1453 anyway. From 1453 until 1932, the Hagia Sophia served as a mosque, referred to as the Aya Sofia. The Byzantine mosaics were plastered over and the relics were removed from the church to facilitate this transformation. Then in 1932, religious services were stopped and the building was re-purposed as a museum.

To be honest, my first impression upon entering was, "Oh, it's really dark in here. And oh look, scaffolding. Because of course there's scaffolding when I visit!" I think the building suffers from its loss of windows, which would really illuminate the grandeur of the building. The gallery level is better than the ground floor, as it still has some daylight seeping in. The chandeliers suspended from the ceiling which once cast the cathedral/mosque in flickering candle light now hold tacky electric candles, which do NOT give the same effect, but are probably necessary to meet fire codes.

Now I've been in a fair few cathedrals in my time, and what really sets the Hagia Sophia (I'm just going to stick with western Christian spellings from here out, because frankly I'm more interested in the Byzantine period church) is how well the museum manages to provide a sense of both the Byzantine church and the Turkish mosque. But before that, a quick note on the awful yellow paint- the mosque was restored by the Fossetti brothers in the mid 1800s. Part of their work included recreating the original mosaic work as best the could in paint. So where that yellow paint is would have been gold mosaic tiles with interspersed geometric designs. Above you can see the Islamic medallions with the names of Allah, Muhammad, and the first 4 caliphs, but you can also see the uncovered mosaic of the Virgin and baby Jesus in the semi-circular alcove above the altar. Below is a close up of this mosaic.

The gold tiles in the background likely originally covered this entire niche area, and it is these gold tiles that really benefit from flickering candlelight, which catches the glimmer in the gold and makes it sparkle.

Here you can see the gallery level, where the best of the mosaics have been uncovered. You may notice that the columns on the different levels do not line up with each other. At the time of construction, this was unheard of, and contemporaries questioned how this could possibly make for a stable structure. Guess the architects showed them! On the ground level, one can still find the marble flooring where the Byzantine Emperors were crowned.

The purple marble above is also found elsewhere in the cathedral, and it is a bit of a mystery where this marble came from. Purple marble like this is Egyptian porphyry, and it is both rare and was not being quarried during the period the Hagia Sophia was constructed. It must have been taken from elsewhere, but it is unclear where it would have come from.

A mihrab, a niche indicating the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and thus the direction that Muslims should face while praying, now occupies the space where the altar once stood. Now, you may be thinking, "I dunno, it looks pretty well lit in there." Well, you would be wrong. That's called a camera flash. Here's an idea of ineffective the windows are at illuminating the ground floor.

Now of course that's not to say that the Hagia Sophia isn't amazingly impressive; I guess I just subscribe to the Gothic theory of light and airy churches, must be the Medievalist in me. But for sheer age alone, visiting the Hagia Sophia is kind of a surreal experience.

Also on the ground floor, just before the entrance to the ramp up to the gallery level is a peculiar column known as the Weeping Column.

How it works: You stick your thumb in the hole and then attempt to turn your wrist all the way around so that the rest of your fingers get all the way around. If when you pull your thumb out, it is moist, your ailments will be healed. My thumb was moist, but that might have just been from the sweaty hands of everyone before me in line to try their luck. I think the trick is to start with your elbow up and wrist twisted as far as you can go before spinning around.

Now we get to the best part. In a departure from most churches, you get to go up a ramp instead of endless uneven steps to get up to the gallery level.

From the gallery level, you not only have a great view of the lower level and the dome, but you can appreciate the mosaics from up close and can also participate in your own synod!

This is the Marble Door. It marked the entrance to the meeting room used for synods, meetings of the Church to decide issues of doctrine, administration, teaching, etc. Immediately past the Marble Door, you will find the first of the Byzantine mosaics.

Well, what's left of it anyway. This is the Deesis mosaic, commissioned in 1261 to commemorate the end of unification with Latin Catholicism and a return to Orthodox belief. Here is depicted JC (sorry, my shorthand for Jesus Christ) with his mum Mary and John the Baptist.

Here's a shot across to the other side of the gallery with a mini-exhibit of photos from the Hagia Sophia. Here you can see some of the original marble columns, complete with geometric paint job by the Fossettis on the tops of the columns.

Here we have JC and Mary again. But I like this mosaic for the figures flanking them. On the left is Emperor John II Comnenus and to the right, Empress Irene. A depiction of their son is on the side of a wall jutting out towards the camera to the right of Irene. Apparently his sad face is because he died from tuberculosis the year the mosaic was made. I'd be sad too. These are 12th century mosaics. Just down from them, a similar scene from the 11th century can be found.

Here we see JC with Emperor Constantine IX and Empress Zoe. This one is interesting because these aren't the original faces! It is uncertain why the faces were changed, but the popular theories are that the mosaic originally depicted either Zoe's first husband or her adopted son, or that the mosaic was of and earlier emperor/empress and rather than ordering a whole new mosaic, they just changed out the faces.

There are still a number of mosaics yet to be uncovered, but as is to be expected with a building this old, decisions must be made about what to showcase and what to preserve. For example, most of the major mosaics have been uncovered to the extent to which they still exist, but some basic cross/geometric mosaics remain covered to preserve historic Islamic painting. One of the biggest controversies is what to do with the dome. Before it was painted with Islamic calligraphy, it held a mosaic of Christ as Ruler of the World. If the mosaic still exists, it would be a great find for Byzantine art/mosaic studies, but would require the destruction of the historic Islamic calligraphy. For now, there are no plans to go searching for it, but one would think they could infrared or laser study to determine if anything actually remains underneath the paint and then evaluate what to do with it. But what do I know?

So there is more than you probably wanted to know about the Hagia Sophia/Aya Sofia/Aya Sofia Muzesi. But to finish off, check out the ablution fountain built in 1740. Meant to be used on the way into the mosque, it now lies on the way out due to the way they've set up the visitors entrance. But I think it is quite pretty.

And if you've made it all the way through that, congratulations! Now have a cookie, you deserve it :)

Gulhane Parki and the Archaeology Museum Complex (Istanbul part 2 of 7)

While the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque dominate Sultanahmet by virtue of being highly visible, Topkapi Sarayi (Topkapi Palace) is perhaps Sultanahmet's most impressive sight. The palace is tucked away within high walls, hidden until you enter into it. But Topkapi is a post (or three) in itself; here I'm going to focus on other things of note within these walls.

Immediately after passing through the high stone walls and pass through a bunch of food carts and then through a wrought iron fence, one comes upon Gulhane Parki, a public park that once served as the grounds and gardens of the sultans living at Topkapi.

The park is a great place for some downtime between hectic sightseeing, and plenty of trees provide some much appreciated shade during the heat of the afternoon.

I thoroughly enjoyed parking my tired self on a bench and munching on baklava and people-watching for an hour. There are also several museums within the huge sprawl of the park, most notably the Archaeology Museum Complex. 10 TL gets you into the Archaeology Museum itself, as well as the Museum of the Ancient Orient and the Museum of Turkish Ceramics.

The three musuems are centered around a "column garden" courtyard (also a good place for some shade) and are open until 7 pm, a bit later than most places.

The Archaeology Museum is the best of the three in my opinion, and has some really neat stuff you won't find in most museums. Sure they've got your basic Greco-Roman style sculpture:

and some mosaics:

and some Roman soldiers:

But what is really cool about the museum is their Sidon collection. Sidon was a major Phoenician city way back in the day (you can thank them for the alphabet), now in modern Lebanon. Excavations in the 19th century turned up some fantastic tombs and sarcophagi reflecting a broad range of artistic styles and influences, and showcasing just how cosmopolitan the Phoenicians and Sidon in particular were. 

This is the Alexander Sarcophagus, named for its depictions of Alexander fighting the Persians on one of the long sides and hunting with them on the other. The tomb was originally thought to have housed Abdalonymus, king of Sidon appointed by Alexander, but that has since been challenged, so it may have belonged to a Persian noble & governor of Babylon instead. But what's great about it is how much of the original pigment survives.

You can still make out the orange in the hair of the man riding the horse, along with the yellow of his cloak and the red in the cloth on the arm of the man behind him. In fact, enough paint has survived to allow a reconstruction of what the image might have looked like to be created. The recreation is from the opposite side of the sarcophagus.

(G.dallorto derived from MatthiasKabel derived from Marsyas via Wikipedia)

The Lycian tomb, above, also comes from the necropolis at Sidon, but less is known about it. Basically, it is monumental, belonged to somebody important, and features the pointed arch lid characteristic of Lycian tombs.

The museum's collections continue upstairs, with artifacts from Istanbul through the Ages, and more material collected from throughout what used to be the Ottoman Empire, including a number of finds from excavations at Troy. They also hold the Kadesh Peace Treaty, believed to be the oldest surviving peace treaty in the world, dating back to 1258 BC and signed by Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II and Hattusili III of the Hittite Empire. The archaeologist in me appreciated this shot:

What do you do with the massive amounts of pottery sherds dug up in excavations? Stick them on the overhang between two floors of the museum! 

Definitely worth a visit, and since it is open late, can be combined with a visit to Topkapi Sarayi no problem, especially if you take a break to enjoy a snack and relax in Gulhane Parki.

Yerebatan Sarnici (Istanbul part 1 of 7)

Ok, here we go: time for Cimby's adventures in Not!UK. After the volcano messed with my travel plans over spring break, I rescheduled my flight to Istanbul for the first week of May (thus missing Istanbul's Tulip Festival, but oh well). If you've been harassing me about pictures- you know who you are!- the ones I like are up on flickr. I probably won't be putting much up on facebook from here on out because their privacy changes kind of scare me, so flickr's the place for photos since I coughed up the dough for a pro account. I recommend flicking through the Istanbul set rather than going through the photostream because I tend to caption the first picture of a place rather than each one individually, so if you're wondering what something is, check the captions. Or just wait until I get around to writing a blog entry about it!

So I pack up my trusty rucksack (I swear, I'm going to come home and sound ridiculous spouting all these British-isms. Like last time I was home and I thanked the sales person ringing up my purchase with "Cheers" and got a funny look) and headed off to the train station at an uncomfortably early hour. Three hours, three trains, and a bus later and I was at London's Luton airport, which, by the by, is not even really all that close to London, but I digress. A Krispy Kreme, security checkpoint, and 2 hours later, I was on a plane for Turkey!

I flew in and out of Istanbul's second airport, Sabiha Gokcen, named after the first female combat pilot in the world, and the adopted daughter of Ataturk, the founder/1st president of the Republic of Turkey, who lends his name to Istanbul's OTHER airport. Nice to see them keeping it a family affair. Anyway, by flying in and out of Sabiha, for a grand total of like 3 hours, I was in Asia! See? Don't you love when I get all creative with MS Paint? ;)

Istanbul is actually divided into three by the Bosphorus (above) separating European Istanbul and Asian Istanbul, and the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus running off the the left of the photo, dividing European Istanbul into northern and southern halves. If I'd had more time, I'd love to have run around the Asia side, but I figured I should hit up the major sights in what time I had.

Now obviously I have never had a gift of conciseness in these entries, but there are some coming up that might just take the cake, so I thought I'd start off easy with Yerebatan Sarnici or the "Basilica Cisterns" for something relatively short & sweet.

I wish that stupid post wasn't there. This is actually the exit- to enter you'd need to go around the corner and across the street, but it is well marked. Like most of the big tourist draws, Yerebatan is in the Sultanahmet district in the Old City on the European side of the city. This makes getting from place to place pretty easy, since most of what you'll want to see in Istanbul is in one walkable area, but it also means that the area is studded with tourist traps, overpriced food, street vendors, and junky souvenirs. Not that I bought any of that. Of course. Moving on.

The cisterns were built by Justinian in the sixth century AD and served as the main water supply for the Byzantine Great Palace and then later for Topkapi Palace. After the Ottomans took over, the cistern fell into disuse and was forgotten by pretty much everyone but the locals, who had wells down into from the houses above and used to fish in it. A Frenchman "rediscovered" it for the tourists in the 1500s when he became curious about where the locals were getting the fresh fish they were selling in the area. And from that point on, it became a tourist attraction.

Originally tourists would take little boats through the columns and marvel that this exists beneath the busy streets of Istanbul. Nowadays, tourists walk along a raised platform and admire the ambiance of mysterious columns illuminated with colored lights and mood music. I'm being somewhat facetious, but in all honesty it is a really cool place to visit, and probably my favorite of the things I did. And, bonus, only 10 Turkish Lira (TL). That's like 4 pounds! I loved the conversion rate while I was there. It was really exciting to realize that I was having a delicious lunch for less than 2 pounds- things like that.

And here's the guys who started it all, the fish.

There's even a cafe down there if you fancy a cuppa while admiring the Byzantine engineering. It is particularly neat because the columns don't seem to have been custom made for the project, but were instead recycled from various other buildings/leftovers, so there is a great variety in the columns themselves to check out. This column is perhaps the oddest- and therefore coolest- of the bunch.

There's also two more oddities in a corner:

Two column bases feature carved heads of Medusa. These were apparently brought to the cistern from elsewhere, obviously from some sort of Roman building. It is thought that the heads were placed sideways and upside down in order to somehow negate the power of her gaze, but it can also be argued that the base is just more stable this way.

The place is huge, along the lines of a decent-sized cathedral, with 336 columns supporting the ceiling. Definitely worth a walk through; doesn't take too long to see, but certainly a unique experience.