A seasoned traveler shares secrets about one of the most amazing destinations on earth.
Marcus Brewster
26 August 2008 01:18
Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul. If you like your travel redolent of exoticism, with the romance of history and the patina of nostalgia, Istanbul beckons. The Turkish city is no longer the capital (that honour was bestowed on Ankara in Central Anatolia in the earlier part of the 20th century), but straddling Europe and Asia, it’s still a mega metropolis of some 11 million people. Effectively three land masses separated by a trio of evocative bodies of water – The Sea of Marmara, the Golden Horn, the Bosphorous – Istanbul is easy to love as a destination. Here are my top ten tips of where to go and what to see.
1. City Tour – it may sound counter-intuitive to consider a group outing as an Istanbul secret, but don’t let your snobbery around mass tourism deflect you. For those on a time-tight itinerary, it makes sense to do a half day city tour as an introduction to Istanbul. Many of the city’s showpiece sights are in the old Sultanahmet precinct so it’s entirely practical to clock them and decide whether you wish to return later under own steam to explore further: Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia (cf below), Topkapi Palace (cf below), Grand Bazaar and the Hippodrome.
2. Sometimes referred to as St Sofia or Aya Sofia, this former church cum mosque and now a museum (since 1932) is the can’t miss landmark experience of Istanbul. Even if you have no interest in religion or history (the structure dates back through 1500 years of crusaders and conquerors, Emperors and Sultans), you cannot but be awed by the scale, size and sheer magnificence of the dome. To see the dull golden gloom of the interior creased by shafts of sunlight is one of this traveller’s most memorable experiences. On this, your second visit, you’ll want to take the time to go upstairs to the gallery for a closer inspection of the marvelous mosaics and, incandescent with belief, to touch the sweating pillar whose moisture has healing powers.
3. The grounds of the Topkapi Palace are so extensive that one is obliged to spend at least half a day to even attempt to do it justice. A series of four courts and the famed harem annex, the Topkapi Sarayi is as much a monument to wealth and power as it is inevitably to decadence and excess. If your senses aren’t overwhelmed by Courts One and Two, brace yourself for passing through the Gate of Felicity into the Third Courtyard which houses the Imperial Treasury. It’s here you’ll see the Spoonmaker’s Diamond (all 86 carats of it) and the magnificent Topkapi Dagger with its three emeralds the size of pigeons eggs. It’s fortunate that the pleasures of the fourth and final court are all natural since the Palace was built on the highest part of a promontory separating the Sea of Marmara from the waterway known as the Golden Horn. When all the visual overkill of Suleyman the Magnificent’s imperial lodgings has dulled your senses, nature’s own showcase is a welcome respite.
4. The Archaeology Museum. Actually part of the palace grounds and all easily walkable, the Archaeology Museum complex of buildings is almost never flagged for tourist visitation and is thus all the more impactful because of the contemplative silence which its halls encourages. Considering that Turkey has more archaeological sites than Greece and Italy combined, the treasures here rival those of the British Museum. Although they may not be as postcard-famous as their London cousins, these artifacts lack for nothing when it comes to artistry and grace. The Alexander Sarcophagus is as moving to the human spirit as anything in marble.
5. The Restaurant at the Orient Express Station. Although you won’t find it listed as a sight in any guide book, the old train station has the most marvelous restaurant. Located at the pier where the tram ends its line, just downhill from the Topkapi Palace and the Archaeology Museum, this is a flashback to the golden age of travel. With silver service from the waistcoated staff, you would expect this to be a big blowout for grand occasions. We decided to treat ourselves one evening but found it so inexpensive – and the food so interesting – that we ate there two nights in a row.
6. The Princes Islands. Possibly because it’s a three quarter day excursion, only locals seem to take the ferry out to the Princes Islands which is a shame as they are absolutely delightful. Dotted in the Bosphorous, they are a series of tiny hamlets where cars are not permitted and visitors explore by foot, by bicycle or by horse-drawn fayton. If you can imagine a world such as Lawrence Durrell might have described – all pine-scented forests with crumbling villas and cypresses – then you have a vision of their discreet charms.
7. The Chora Church. If you do your city tour on a Monday when Hagia Sofia is closed, they substitute it with Kariye Camii. If ever the understudy deserved its own starring role, this is it. Scintillating with the best-preserved collection of Byzantine mosaics, every inch of this bijou little church glitters with gold-leaf tile. Unusually for a religious building in an Islamic culture, the art is representational so you can see Jesus, Mary and various saints, including St Kosmos the Poet, the patron deity of writers.
8. Dolmabache Palace. Owing more to Versailles than is strictly speaking healthy, Dolmabache has been described as “an impressive study in the aesthetics of excess”. Built in the mid 1840’s and mixing French Baroque, Neo-Classical and Rococo architecture, the furnishings of this royal pied-a-terre are simply staggering. Whereas you catch your breath at the austere dimensions of the Hagia Sofia dome, you literally gasp in disbelief at the augmented ostentation of the palace’s throne room where its gilded dome supports a 3 500 kg Waterford chandelier, a gift from Queen Victoria.
9. Pera Palace. Every stop on the grand tour had its grand hotel and the Pera Palace was literally the last and the grandest stop on the Orient Express line. If you ask, you will be shown room 411, kept as a museum suite to honour Agatha Christie who wrote the over-rated “Murder on the Orient Express” whilst staying there. But every bold face name since, including Jacqueline Kennedy, has been cosseted in the hotel’s velvet lined walls. The Pera has willfully kept its dark period furnishings and remains a haven for the nostalgia buff. Don’t buy the golf shirts in the gift shop – the fit is poor and the fabric mix synthetic.
10. Underground Cistern. With gloomily ambient lighting and the echo of classical music, the Yerebatan Sabay is as close to being on the set of Tomb Raider as you are likely to get. This vast underground cavern with its soaring columns (all 336 of them) used to supply the city’s water and even fish were tapped in its depths. Walkways used to lead to the Topkapi palace itself but these have been blocked off to curb the legendary traffic in stolen goods and abducted women.
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