How do you even begin to see a city of 22 million people and the center of so much history? Our answer was to hire a guide. It was the will of god (Insha'Allah) that we got a marvelous guide Emil (or as we called her Amy). She patiently spent 7 hours with us hitting the highlights of the old city of Istanbul. She had great stories, personal and historical, that put everything in context. It was a very educational and fun day. It was her birthday and she was so outgoing that by the end of the day we joked that she must know everyone in Istanbul.
I am just going to share pictures and very brief explanations of things that I am sure could be studied for a lifetime.
The three of us from the Topkapi Palace, overlooking the Bosphorus
Topkapi Palace was very peaceful, despite huge crowds. The gardens, grownds, buildings were so well curated
On the palace growns this area had been Roman, Ottoman, Church, Mosque and Museum over the millennium
The "Blue Mosque" early in the morning
The same mosque in the afternoon
View of the Bosphorus and Asia
The Hippodrome - Formerly a Roman stadium
Inside the Basilica Cistern - Built by the Romans in 5th century - It is 100,000 square feet and has 336 columns. The hand is modern art, recently addes
An example of one of the many isles of columns. The line on the columns shows the water level when in use
We got up this morning at 0600 to get into a famous Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, to see the building during the morning prayers, rather to wait with the hordes of tourists at 0900.
Below are some photos from our tour along the Bosphorus this afternoon. The weather was perfect and the views stunning. It will take a little work for me to recreate the names of all the places (palaces, bridges, Mosques).
Congratulations! What an epic adventure.
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