Tag: Blue Mosque

Turkey dinners

Rebecca Seal cooks up a storm in Istanbul

Magical: the Blue Mosque

Rebecca Seal

Deep in the lanes of Kadikoy market, I am learning about baklava. My guide, Olga Tikhonova-Irez, who runs food tours and cooking courses, is explaining how the 40 layers of pastry, nuts and sugar syrup in baklava are assembled, and how some Turks will happily eat half a dozen as a mid-morning snack. We have been eating treats all morning — mussels stuffed with spiced rice, meaty pastries, pomegranate Turkish delight — so I can barely manage one sticky sweet mouthful, upended on a fork in the local fashion.

Turkish food isn’t as highly regarded in Britain as it should be — we think it’s all late-night kebabs, pickled chillies and garlic sauce, but we’ve got it very wrong. Turkey has one of the richest, most varied and exciting cuisines in the world, and combines influences from the Ottomans and Persians as well as Asian and Middle Eastern countries, with farmers and fishermen still providing most of the food the population consumes: everyone cooks with local, seasonal ingredients.

Olga, a smart, friendly but very determined and no-nonsense former businesswoman in her late thirties, is going to teach me just a snippet of what she knows. She is Russian but fell in love with Istanbul and its food when visiting several years ago, gave up her high-powered consultancy job and moved to the city to teach visitors how to cook it. Later she met the man who would become her husband, Özgür, whose mother has a traditional restaurant just outside Istanbul, Zelis Çiftligi; Olga works in the kitchens at weekends.

Istanbul is captivating, and not just because of the food. We’re staying at the brand-new Marti Hotel — one of Istanbul’s growing collection of luxurious hotels — which sits just north of Taksim Square (equivalent to Leicester Square). There’s a huge, grand entrance, decked out in marble and gold, stone hamam-style bathrooms and a restaurant with sweeping views of Istanbul’s skyline. To get from there to Kadikoy, we’ve travelled via a funicular and a short ferry ride across the Bosphorus, the stretch of water separating the European side of the city from the Asian. It’s a journey that in less than an hour takes in elegant businessmen and swanky office blocks, tiny striped handcarts selling twists of sesame-studded bread, beautifully tiled mosques and narrow minarets, shopping centres, and giant white cruise liners dwarfing tiny wooden fishing boats.

From the whirling madness of central Istanbul’s traffic, we’ve made it here, to a very different kind of bustle; shoppers inspect the redness of fish’s gills or the plumpness of tomatoes, and old men with huge wicker baskets on their backs wander through the market, looking to pick up work portering people’s bags. In the past, these porters had another role: women would pay them to bring their husbands home from a night out on the local aniseed spirit, raki. Consequently Turkish slang for being hammered is ‘to end up in a basket’.

We’re here to collect the ingredients for the feast we will later cook in Olga’s flat: piles of tiny silvery anchovies; helva, a solid, sweet sesame paste; courgettes and cheese for fritters; and aubergines to roast and turn into a salad. We also get the chance to try a short, black Turkish coffee and numerous tiny glasses of sweet Turkish tea. Plus, we meet Olga’s favourite fishmonger, who poses for photos around his immaculately arranged trays of horse mackerel and sea bass, before we visit a branch of the oldest sweet shop in Istanbul (the original opened in 1777); the wooden frontage gives way to glass counters piled with sticky sweet sesame helva and Turkish delight.

This isn’t an area foreign tourists come to. How did she find out about all these shops without a guidebook? ‘When I arrived, I followed older, well-dressed women around the market. The locals are very demanding of their shops and they showed me the way. Later, I learned that specialisation is very important here, so I know not to trust anywhere that sells everything. You go to one place for your Turkish delight, another for your baklava and others for bread or vegetables.’

After a short journey, laden with bags, on a small antique tram, we arrive at Olga’s apartment (with an enviably well-appointed open kitchen) and the work begins. I spend a happy few hours gutting anchovies for an anchovy and rice pilaf; blackening peppers and aubergines until they blister, then mixing them with parsley and pomegranate molasses to make a sharp, smoky salad; and learning how to fry perfect feta and courgette cakes — crisp and brown on the outside and soft, cheesy and squidgy within. I also discover the secret to perfect, fluffy rice — ‘It’s shameful for a Turkish cook to serve sticky rice,’ says Olga — soaking it in warm water for half an hour before cooking.

Once everything is prepared, Olga pours us some delicious Turkish white wine and we demolish the lot together. She can take up to six on a course; today it’s just the two of us. Just when we think we’re completely stuffed, Olga whips up brûlée with the helva, melting it and adding sour apple before sprinkling it with cinnamon.

On the boat ride back to the hotel, all we can do is stretch out on the wooden benches, feeling full and happy. Unsurprisingly, we don’t manage to eat any dinner that night. ES

Pictures by Steven Joyce

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Rebecca Seal flew to Turkey with Pegasus Airlines, tickets start at £53.99 one way from Stansted including taxes and charges (flypgs.com). She stayed at the five-star Marti Hotel in Taksim (marti istanbulhotel.com). Rooms start at £166. For details of how to book Olga Tikhonova-Irez’s Istanbul walking food tours and cookery courses, go to delicious istanbul.com

Istanbul: Recipes from the heart of Turkey by Rebecca Seal is out in July (Hardie Grant, £25)

April 7, 2013
The Hindu : Metroplus / Travel : Istanbul and its old world charm

Colourful History Hagia Sophia

The Hindu Haggling in Grand Bazaar

Worshippers in the dramatic interiors of the the Blue Mosque

A city that does not just attract you but grabs you by the hair and mesmerises you.

I am standing in the heart of Istanbul, a magical city that’s been the cradle of many civilisations. My senses are teased from all directions. The sound of the evening call comes to my ears from the Suleyman mosque, competing with vendors’ cries and self-styled tour operators advertising boat rides on the Bosphorus. The fishy smell of the seaside, thick and cloying, mingles with the burnt smell of corn and roasted chestnuts, the most common street snack in Turkey.

Colours assail my eyes. The bright blue of the sky, the aquamarine of the Bosphorus, the brown and deep blue of the mosque domes, multi-coloured boats carrying excited tourists and their clicking cameras… Istanbul does not just get to you. It grabs you by the hair. It possesses you. And never lets you go.

Istanbul is divided by the greater horn estuary into a north-western part called Beyoglu and a south-eastern part called Eminonu. Beyoglu is dominated by the Dohlmabahce Palace, while Eminonu has 2000 years of history clustered into the one-square-mile Saultan Ahmet Square, with Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, and Basilica Cistern.

My first stop is Topkapi Palace, one of the largest castles in the world and the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for nearly 400 years. Over centuries, the Sultans gathered works of art from the distant outreaches of their empire. Some fascinating pieces include the staff of Moses, with which he is said to have parted the Red Sea; the sword of Abu Bakr, first Caliph and father-in-law of Prophet Mohammed, the sword of Ali Bin Talib, son-in-law of the Prophet; besides my personal favourites — the mantle of the Prophet, his footprint preserved in silver, and hairs from the prophet’s beard. I had goose bumps all over my body when I saw these holy relics carefully preserved for over a millennium and a half.

There are other attractions, like the meandering harem quarters (incidentally, ‘meander’ is derived from the Turkish river Mender) where legend says Turkish rulers housed Hungarian, Romanian and Russian women, preferring them to Turkish beauties.

At Hagia Sophia, I discover that the English football hooliganism is nothing new, being at least 15 centuries old. The games at Constantinople took place in the hippodrome, and in the sixth century, when their team lost a major game, crazed fans attacked and destroyed the beautiful Hagia Sophia, a huge wooden church that Constantine’s successors had built. In retaliation, the Emperor called the fans into the hippodrome and had every one of them executed. Since they constituted 10 per cent of the population, the punishment was called decimation.

The new Hagia Sophia was built over five years and is a masterpiece of early Christianity, with stained glass windows, marble columns, and fabulous gold-layered mosaics. What an example of tolerance — when the Ottomans overran Constantinople, they destroyed no churches but converted them into mosques instead, principally by adding minarets and changing the centre of the apse to face Mecca. No frescoes or mosaics were destroyed; instead, since Islam prohibited image worship, a thin layer of plaster was put on the surface of the mosaics. The plaster was taken off by the new secular Turkish government and I had the rare pleasure of seeing the face of an angel revealed after 11 years of hard work.

It was in recognition of 900 years of Christianity and 500 years of Islam vibrating together in the same hall that Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, declared the monument a museum, and opened it to the whole world.

The Blue Mosque is a charming, yet massive structure. Built to pay tribute to Allah, it’s the only mosque with six minarets. Incidentally, the Hagia Sophia is the only mosque with four dissimilar minarets. The interiors of the blue mosque have 21,043 hand-painted blue tiles, giving a distinct blue colour to the inner dome. Although prayers continue through the day, tourists are allowed free access. In the soft evening light, as we left the blue mosque, the musical call of the muezzin was nectar to our ears as the day gently pulled us away.

Another feature of the blue mosque that delighted me was the presence of four large medallions on the corners of the central hall. While two medallions carry the names Abu Bakr and Ali Bin Talib, the other two have the names Hussain and Hassan. This, in contemporary Islam, is very rare and one that I have not known to exist in any other mosque. The Prophet’s grandson Hussain and his father-in-law Abu Bakr’s descendants had a bloody series of clashes leading to Hussain’s death at Kerbala. And thousands of innocent Muslims have been killed in the ongoing schism between Shia and Sunni factions, including the Kurd massacre by Saddam Hussein. What better way to preach brotherhood than a visit to the blue mosque?

QUICK GUIDE

MUST VISIT

Istanbul Archaeology Museum, one of the five largest in the world with nearly a million pieces

Istanbul’s Kapaliçarsi or Grand Bazaar, dating back to 1461, with over 4,000 shops

MUST BUY

Hand-knotted carpets or kilims, often sold as pillowcases, bags or boots

Hand-painted quartz or ceramic tiles

MUST EAT

Simit, a light, fluffy bread topped with sesame with Sahlab, a hot and cinnamony milk tea

Turkish Delight, or Lokum, of course!

Keywords: Turkey, Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Blue Mosque

via The Hindu : Metroplus / Travel : Istanbul and its old world charm.

February 26, 2013
Top 5 things to do in Istanbul

Istanbul is one of those cities that leaves everyone who’s been there hankering to go back. But if you’re about to make your first appearance, here are five things you won’t want to miss.

Istanbul’s Blue Mosque. Photo / Megan Singleton

1. Aya Sofia or Hagia Sophia – This is the most breathtaking building in all of Istanbul. Originally built as St Sophia orthodox cathedral in the 6th century, it had the largest dome in all of Christendom and pure gold mosaics on the walls. In the 15th century it became a mosque and Muslim symbols were added. Today it is a museum with artefacts and mosaics dating to its beginning.

2. The Grand Bazaar – This 600 year old market is a maze of 60 covered streets crammed with 5000 vendors selling everything from antique rugs, glass lamps, ceramic bowls, leather coats, jewellery, cushion covers and more. Get your game face on and prepare to haggle – over a cup of hot apple tea. But the quality of goods can be amazing. Remember, the old adage is true, you get what you pay for. Oh, and James Bond rode his motorbike through here on Skyfall.

3. The Spice Market – Start here for your first foray into the world of doing business Turkish style.

It’s smaller than the Grand Bazaar but no less skill is demanded. You’ll find piles of dried spices and tea and plenty of fresh Turkish delight and other shops selling some of what the Bazaar sells. But the best thing is, you can declare your vacuum-packed spices and bring them home.

4. The Blue Mosque – The main mosque in Istanbul, Sultan Ahmed Mosque, is located near Aya Sofia in the tourist area of Sultanahmet. Nicknamed for its 20,000 handmade blue Iznik tiles, this is the mosque that pilgrims try to get to once in their lifetime. The public can enter and take photos. Scarves are provided for women and shoes are carried in plastic bags.

5. A Turkish Bath – Probably the most eye-popping experience you can have as a traveller. Pay for the works including the bath, massage and hair wash and prepare to leave your modesty at the door as you are scrubbed with a mitt by a middle-aged Turkish woman (in the women’s hamam that is), soaped up like a car and sloughed down with bowls of warm water until your skin is soft and smooth.

bloggeratlarge.com

– nzherald.co.nz

By Megan Singleton

via Top 5 things to do in Istanbul – Travel – NZ Herald News.

February 16, 2013
Turkey: Land where climates, people and cultures meet

Sunday, February 10, 2013 – Islamabad —Viewing Turkey through the lens of Erkut Onart was pleasantly refreshing for many as the photographs reflected a Turkey, culturally rich and diverse. Erkut Onart’s photography exhibition titled “Turkey: the land where climates, people and cultures meet” that opened here at Satrang Gallery was attended by art enthusiast and diplomats. Mr. Onart himself, H.E Babur Hizlan, Ambassador of Turkey, and Faisal Karim Kundi, Deputy Speaker of National Assembly were the chief guests at the occasion. The exhibition is first of the events as part of the cultural activities between Pakistan and Turkey. “2013-2014 would be celebrated as the Cultural Years of Turkey in Pakistan and Pakistan in Turkey to strengthen the ties of the two countries” said the Turkish Ambassador, Babur Hizlan. Faisal Kundi hoped that Pakistani artists would also go to Turkey under the cultural exchange program.

The vibrant photographs, portraying places, people, architecture and landscapes of Turkey, depicted a rich culture full of diversity. “Mr. Onart has truly captured the beauty and spirit of the people and places of Turkey,” said Asma Khan, director of the Gallery. Every photograph allows a glance into nature, ambiance, people and places of different cultures. “Each photo reflects a different region of Turkey and is a great opportunity for Pakistanis to learn about the country” remarked Madame Hizlan.

The exhibition reflects the diversity and richness of the Turkish culture. “It is refreshing and different from what we generally see in Turkish dramas on our (Pakistani) channels” said Ahsan Akhtar, a visitor, who was impressed enough to plan a visit to Turkey.

Places of Istanbul are the highlight of the exhibition but the photographer has brought out other striking places as well such as the city of Bursa and Konya, city of Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes. Photographs of the Blue Mosque, the prestigious landmark of Istanbul; photo Dolmabahce Palace, in all its glory, stood tall among other photos on display.

via Turkey: Land where climates, people and cultures meet.

February 12, 2013
Turkish Delight

ISTANBUL: MEDUSA’S HEAD IS upside-down, her snake-hair rippling above the water. The savage beauty – whose look could turn you to stone – is floating above a cistern: the universal word for tank which gains something murky in translation to Irish-English because of its very specific use here.

ANCIENT BEAUTY Sultan Ahmed Mosque at night PHOTOGRAPH: THINKSTOCK

ANCIENT BEAUTY Sultan Ahmed Mosque at night PHOTOGRAPH: THINKSTOCK

But this cistern is a magical, cavernous underground cathedral where stone columns – Ionic, Doric and even leafy Corinthian – stand calmly in the still, vast bath. Medusa heads have been carved at the bases of two of the columns: one sideways and one upside down – the reason apparently being to ward off evil spirits (although it could have been practical: supporting the columns better in these positions).

So much is heavily marketed in our world, skewing our expectations (and, if you are disappointed because descriptions have been overblown, too bad: they’ve got your money now), that when something does turn out to be gorgeous, you reap one of life’s sublime surprises.

A waste-water storage facility isn’t as grand a prospect as a mosque or cathedral, but the Basilica Cistern’s proximity to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, in the old part of Istanbul, brings tourists here as an also-ran.

There are taps outside the Blue Mosque (or Sultan Ahmed Mosque), in recesses in the 17th-century stone wall, where worshippers can clean themselves, as they must do before addressing their God, although the evident lack of people using this very public facility suggests that many nowadays undertake the task at home before being called to prayer. The next task is to take off your shoes – having passed the funeral area outside the entrance – then pad around on the carpet within.

The blue is truly wonderful, the azure ceiling like a brilliant mosaic sky. But its full effect is filtered through thousands of wires hanging from the ceiling to support lamps that dangle just above head height. Tourists are held back, behind a wooden barrier, from the worshipping area where a man stands alone on a far platform, bending in prayer.

In Hagia Sophia – across a courtyard – a stray cat sits on a platform at the front of the mosque showing that this vast, majestic building can easily accommodate all-comers, all the while retaining its stature and capacity to delight. Tourists teem through, walking up its sloping stone-floored tunnel to reach the upper level where a fresco of Jesus has eyes that follow you around the room. The idea was that he was always watching you: be good.

The building has seen many visitors in its nearly 2,000 years of existence. It started as a Greek cathedral, later becoming a Roman Catholic church and then a mosque before being secularised in 1931. It is now a museum.

And that’s illustrative of Istanbul, which spills across water, spanning the Bosphorus and Golden Horn waterways. Symbolically cleaved at the conjunction of Europe and Asia, it is the only city in the world on two continents. Crammed with an estimated 13.5 million people, it has a personality that reflects its geographical positioning.

It feels like a city hankering for the perceived benefits of a westernisation – although, is that gloating I sense from the newsreader presenting the troubles of Greece? – while retaining a strong eastern identity. Christian and Muslim traditions rub shoulders, in a country where the Muslim faith is widely followed but not enshrined in law.

This situation offers freedom for various levels of expression, starkly illustrated at a traditional Turkish dancing evening which descended into belly dancing by surgically appended women jiggling their breasts and hips audience-wise to the obvious delight of one local man, who hollered and laughed, and practically dribbled, all the while hugging his wife – who wore a long dress and headscarf.

Globalisation, and the fact that the city is now becoming a weekend-break destination for Europeans (with a Turkish Airlines flight from Dublin in just under four hours), will bring a greater western influence.

Istanbul’s old city offers rich Turkish tradition, to the joy of tourists who take advantage of having the must-sees all within a walk of each other, near Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque is Topkapi Palace, the vast home of Ottoman sultans for 400 years (1465-1856). In that time they acquired vast hauls of jewel-encrusted garb and household goods and constructed a harem building that could hold 300 women. Here you can drink tea by the Bosphorus or, if you visit in the winter, run into the cafe and warm your hands over a bowl of hot coals.

In the Grand Bazaar you can find beautiful carpets, cushions, fabrics and blown glass, as well as soaps and oils of sensuous plants, although there are now also fake handbags (Tod’s and Mulberry) and the main drag of glass-fronted jewellery shops is more Bond Street than traditional market.

Yet there is a real gem, down near the spice market by the Bosphorus. It is a long, thin street running parallel to the river, where locals buy anything they want from guns, frilly gauze to tie on newborns’ cradles, hammers, cheap runners, spades and spices, to handmade steel extractor hoods. There is also coffee, for which there is a huge queue waiting outside a window where young men packing the precious beans at speed.

All these and more can be found dangling from the tops of stalls that are stuffed with goods as well as at waist level on tables and within the small rooms beyond. Anything you want – historically, culturally, religiously, socially and commercially – you can get in Istanbul.

* City breaks to Istanbul are available from wingsabroad.ie, tel: 01-8719444 or a travel agent. A weekend package with Turkish Airlines, Europe’s Best Airline 2011 ( turkishairlines.com), staying at the Seres Hotel costs from €319pps.

June 16, 2012
Under the spell of Istanbul

Magnificent historical structures in the Turkish city speak volumes of its rich history, writes Rizauddin Ibrahim

AHH… historic Istanbul! This crosses my mind the moment I lay my eyes on classic Ottoman buildings and the architecturally European-flavoured ones set along the shores of the Golden Horn.

I am on a boat cruise along the waters of the Golden Horn, a natural estuary of the Bosphorus Strait that divides this capital of Turkey into two continents — Asia in the east and Europe in the west.

That boat cruise is a surreal yet amazing voyage between the two continents.

The Golden Horn is a 7.5km- long, narrow estuary that forms a protected natural harbour.

For thousands of years, it has been a port of call for ships from the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman.

Here was where the city once began and here is where I begin my journey in historic Istanbul.

ANCIENT DOMES AND TOWERS

Looking at the city skyline from where I am on the boat, I can already feel the historic aura. First, I clearly see the domes and towers of Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and Blue Mosque which date from the year 530 to 1600.

As the boat cruises along the coast, one cannot help feeling impressed at the sight of Dolmabahce Palace, (1856), and Beylerbeyi Palace, a summer palace completed in 1865.

And there are many hundreds of years-old wooden villas and mansions along the shores that will make anyone envious of their owners.

Then comes the Rumeli Hasari or Rumeli Fortress that will leave you awestruck by its sheer supreme look. It was the largest fortress built by Sultan Mehmed Istanbul II in 1451 to control the sea routes of the Bosphorus to prevent aid from the Black Sea reaching the Turkish Siege of Constantinople in 1453.

Constantinople is the Byzantine name for Istanbul. It was under siege many times before Mehmet The Conqueror took the city in 1453 and made it the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Before that, it was the capital of powerful Roman and Byzantine Empire.

These ancient empires left these symbols of their past glories and best of all, these remnants are not scattered ruins of dull grey stones but large buildings which have defied the ravages of time. All these can now still be seen in the Sultan Ahmed District.

ROYAL DISTRICT

The Sultan Ahmed District is the heart of historic Old Istanbul. It is located on the peninsula bounded by bodies of water to north, east and south — the Golden Horn, Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, respectively. The area was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1985.

This is where Constantinople was located at the southern bank of the Golden Horn and parts of the defence wall of the old city still remain at the coast. Located on the European side of Istanbul, the old city is the best base for sightseeing in Istanbul.

As the most historic part of Istanbul, Sultan Ahmet District is where all the city’s significant landmarks like Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and Topkapi Palace are located. Making it a complete tourist destination, the area has a number of good restaurants and hotels too.

HIPPODROME OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Though public transport is easily accessible, going on foot is the best choice to explore the old city. You should not miss going to Sultan Ahmed Square, actually the Hippodrome of Constantinople, the sporting and social centre of the city during the Byzantium era where horse or chariot racings were held.

Today, several fragments of the original structure that adorned the square during its glorious time are still standing. They are the monuments of the Spiral Column, Thutmosis Obelisk and Walled Obelisk.

The most recent addition to the square is the German Fountain, which is an octagonal domed fountain in neo-Byzantine style, constructed by the German government in 1900 to mark the German Emperor Wilhelm II’s visit to Istanbul in 1898.

THE BLUE MOSQUE

Adjacent to the Hippodrome is the Blue Mosque, or its official name, Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Built from 1609 to 1617, it is called the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles that adorn the walls of its interior. However, the tiles are mostly on the upper level, which is difficult to see.

Coming from the Hippodrome, I walk through a grand doorway on the western side to go to its inner courtyard.

Its architecture is better appreciated from the outside, especially under the bright sunlight from the Sultan Ahmed Garden at the northern side.

This grand building of Ottoman architecture with six minarets and cascading layers of domes is a sight to behold.

HAGIA SOPHIA

As you admire the Blue Mosque and praise its architect, Sadefkar Mehmet Aga, tribute should also be given to Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, the architects of neighbouring Hagia Sophia.

They designed Hagia Sophia 1,000 years before Mehmet Aga was born. History goes that Sultan Ahmed 1, the Sultan of Ottoman ordered the Blue Mosque to be built to rival Hagia Sophia. And the result is two great architectural achievements standing next to each other in Istanbul’s main square.

Hagia Sofia or Aya Sofia in Turkish which means Church Of Holy Wisdom, was built from year 532 to 537.

At that time, its wide, flat dome was considered a daring engineering feat and became the world’s most impressive building and made it the greatest church in Christendom.

It then was turned into a mosque when Ottoman conquered the city in 1453 and continued to serve as Istanbul’s most revered mosque until 1935 when Kamal Ataturk turned it into a museum as we see it today.

Unlike the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia is best admired from the inside, especially from the mezzanine level. From this floor, the view of the prayer hall is the most impressive. The natural light is slightly dimmed under its massive dome but gloriously lit by the glittering gold from the 30 million pieces of tiny golden tiles.

These tiny pieces of tiles are mosaic images of the Virgin Mother, Jesus, saints, emperors and empresses, as well as geometric patterns.

As it was once a mosque, the wall has Islamic calligraphy arts that inscribe religious names including that of the first four caliphs Abu Bakar, Umar, Uthman and Ali.

It is under this great dome of Hagia Sophia that I find a perfect mix of both Ottoman and Byzantium, or Islamic and Christian.

These are the characteristics of two different cultures from two great empires that have affected present Istanbul.
TOPKAPI PALACE

Next to Hagia Sophia is Topkapi Palace, home of Ottoman Sultan for 400 years and the heart of Ottoman Empire.

The initial construction began in 1459 but after that, over centuries, the Palace Complex expanded to cover 80 hectares! This centuries-long construction included the major renovation after the 1509 earthquake and 1665 fire.

At its peak, the palace is home to 4,000 people but it is now the Topkapi Palace Museum housing many collections of historic objects from all over the Ottoman Empire and precious heirlooms that once belonged to Ottoman Sultans themselves.

A short visit to this palace will not do justice to it for it is a huge complex, made of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings.

The assortment of small buildings is fine architecture on its own. They are a result of the directives by many previous Ottoman Sultans who individually added and changed various structures and elements in the palace.

But the finest of all is the Fourth Courtyard or Imperial Sofa, the innermost private sanctuary of the Sultan and his family and has a number of pavilions, kiosks, gardens and terraces.

Here also is the special chamber called Chamber of the Sacred Relic, which includes the Pavilion of the Holy Mantle.

The pavilion houses what are considered the most sacred relics of the Muslim world, including the cloak of the Prophet Muhammad, two swords, a bow, one tooth, hairs of his beard, his battle sabres, autographed letters and other relics.

Several other sacred objects are also on display, such as the swords of the first four Caliphs, the staff of Moses, the turban of Joseph and a carpet belonging to Muhammad’s daughter.

The upper terrace has the Iftar Kiosk and Baghdad Kiosk where the Sultan customarily breaks fast during Ramadan with the view of the Golden Horn in the background. This is the best place to end the tour in Topkapi Palace.
GRAND BAZAAR

For a city that is proud of its heritage and culture inherited from two major empires, there is life in this city that stubbornly clings on to its old world ambience. That is the Grand Bazaar.

The oldest and one of the world’s largest covered bazaars, the bazaar spreads over 61 covered streets with more than 3,000 shops. Record has it that the bazaar attracts between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.

It offers an excellent shopping experience especially for souvenir hunting, from Turkish carpets, glazed tiles and pottery, copper and brassware, apparel made of leather, cotton and wool, music instrument to all sorts of other things.

Thanks to the ambience, I can’t help but feel like entering Aladdin’s cave in some shops selling antiques.

This is the place to hone bargaining skills, which usually involves prospective clients having tea with the traders while bargaining for the right price.

Shopping in the Grand Bazaar is what many visitors list as among the things to do when visiting Istanbul. But for a more sizzling time, have a fine dinner with a belly dancing show thrown in.

Read more: Under the spell of Istanbul – Holiday – New Straits Times

May 17, 2012