Day five in Istanbul and time for the big tourist hit – the Topkapi Palace. Prime real estate on the point of the Golden Horn. Home of the Sultans for over four hundred years from late fifteenth century until 1856 when they updated to a more European style palace on the banks of the Bosphorus. A compound of dozens of buildings you enter through this gate, guarded by soldiers with machine guns (scary).
All the buildings separated by lovely gardens. All a bit confusing about where to go once inside. Conscious of lots of tourists for the first time since we came to Istanbul.
We joined the shortest queue and ended up seeing examples of clothes worn by the Sultans. Beautiful fabrics and exquisite embroidery. Strange shapes. Tunics with kimono style sleeves, others with long thin ones. Some of the tunics were small – very young Sultans. Amazingly large trousers were confronting – to ensure comfort sitting cross legged or very fat Sultans! No female costumes which was disappointing. Also no cameras, so no pictures. Out into the grounds which were very lovely and into another queue.
This was much longer – for the Royal Treasury. Again no cameras so no pictures. Some of the items were spectacular. The the three spoons diamond – an enormous stone, discovered on a rubbish dump and sold by some poor person for three spoons – hence the name. A mystery how it landed in a rubbish dump, not so much a mystery that the Grand Vizier got to hear about it and snaffled it for the Sultan. Enormous square emeralds embedded in the hilts of daggers and scabbards, on elaborate head pieces and other jewelry. And on their own – a big bowl of them. The Sultan’s gold seal. Elaborate utensils made of precious minerals – gold, silver, zinc, chrystal – encrusted with precious gems – diamonds, emeralds, rubies, topaz’s. Water bottles and jugs were a key item. Exquisite rectangle chests – so intricate and beautiful – used by the Sultan when receiving foreign visitors. (The tradition lives on in some of the cafes here where they give you the bill in little wooden chests). Gifts from foreign kingdoms – the English monarchy included. Egyptian Mamluks sent things when the Sultan defeated Christians. All a bit bloodthirsty. There were some truly exquisite objects. Rings – one with a perfect miniature portrait of Napolean. Pendants – the orbs that hang from inside the domes. Swords and daggers. Amazing craftsmanship. Priceless.
These exhibits were all housed in fairly prosaic buildings without much decoration. As we moved further into the grounds we came to beautiful pavilions that were used for relaxation as well as storing things like turbans.
One was the circumcision room! They were all very beautiful. Exquisite tiles – still vividly colored, beautiful patterns – both inside and outside.
Amazing ceilings with pendants hanging down.
Overlooking gardens, paved courtyards and ornamental pools.
The pavilions were lovely, but they were just the precursor to even more splendour in the rooms and courtyards of the Harem. We were lucky in that when we finally got here, there were not so many other visitors. These were the main living quarters of the Sultan and his family – which was of course extensive. The furnishings and decorations got lusher the further you moved inside – a very hierarchical place. Started with the eunuchs’ quarters, very spare.
Then where most of the women lived – they were selected at a tender age – all pretty awful. I suppose depends what the alternatives were.
On into the Sultan’s Mother’s rooms – she moved in with great fanfare at some stage and liked European paintings on the walls. She basically ran the household and was very influential in the scheme of things. Apparently there were some pretty bloodthirsty mothers.
The Sultan’s favorites in the Harem had more ornate rooms and their own courtyard overlooking what was once a pool.
While their living quarters may have been grander, life would have been pretty precarious. If any of these women had children they became the Sultan’s consorts. One of the Sultan’s actually married one a consort. It didn’t do his subjects much good -she was a bit of a monster, persuading him to kill his best friend! I suppose you had to ruthless to survive. We saw the ornate rooms of a couple of Crown Princes. Their lot in life was tricky too – okay if they survived and inherited, but all brothers of the new Sultan were killed in the early days. Later they were just kept in the Harem, virtually prisoners. All to avoid disputes about succession. No wonder debauchery set in.
Finally we saw the Sultan’s quarters which are the most richly appointed – but by which time we were pretty exhausted and it was getting hard to appreciate all the splendour!
The Sultan used to do official business in the Harem and there were ornate reception rooms. Hard to capture the luxurious nature of it on film. These pictures seem quite inadequate. We were at the palace for four hours and it was very hot. I was exhausted afterwards. Sensory overload. Plus all those marble floors and ornately decorated walkways were incredibly hard on one’s feet – if you are ever here be sure to wear good walking shoes!
We needed a few hours of R and R before venturing out again. But out we did go. Braving an amazing three hour taxi ride – ducking in and out of heavily congested traffic then speeding madly along main highways – we headed to the Asian side. To join around ten thousand Istanbul residents paying homage to a modern day Prince of Song. The great crooner Leonard Cohen. He was playing in a huge, modern sports stadium in Atasehir. Our taxi driver was terrific – got quite stressed, worried that he would not get us there in time. Winding down his window from time to time to ask for directions – other drivers incredibly helpful. As was he, when someone asked him for directions to somewhere. The traffic is absolutely chaotic and we were in the middle of peak hour(s). He asked if he could smoke, he was finding getting there so stressful. Could no speak much English but asked where we were from – told us he had a brother in Australia – in Christchurch. Playing hockey. Showed us a picture on his iPhone. He was lovely. He couldn’t believe the traffic that was converging on the stadium. It was surrounded by huge condominiums – part of a planned upper class enclave housing some eighty thousand people currently under way. The buildings around the stadium are all finished. All a bit spartan though at the moment. Unlike in Australia there were not massive roads leading into the stadium – just ordinary sized urban roads which meant the buildings remained quite close and walkable.
We were just in time helped by the fact that the 8pm start morphed into an 8.45pm one. Good for us – time to recover from the hair-raising ride. A great throng of people moving through security screening into the hall.
The audience was much like those, including me, who attended Leonard’s 2010 Melbourne concert. Both format and the material placed was much the same too but with the addition of songs from his latest album – Old Ideas which I have which is great. In one song on it he describes himself as ‘a crazy bastard in a suit’ which brought a laugh. Same band – all great musicians and given the chance to show off their skill. Leonard very courtly introducing them – all in English, noTurkish spoken. Only gesture to where he was (which could have been anywhere in the world) was to insert the words ‘I came to Istanbul in his signature song Hallelujah. Didn’t matter to the crowd they (we) loved him.
The stadium was great, very new, comfortable seats. Held lots of people.
We had good seats that were close to the stage – so we could see the Turkish carpets adorning it.
But it was still nice to have the screen nearby for close-ups.
We got the impression we were the only visitors to Istanbul in the crowd, but could be wrong. Early on someone called out Happy Birthday – this was the 19th of September, his birthday is on the 21st – and that brought a smile. He’s 78! Amazing. We loved every bit of the concert. Stayed for two encores but then, like many, left as he came back for a third. He seemed energised by all the love! I was anxious about getting a cab at midnight. Well-founded concern given the first cabbie we hailed kicked us out when he heard where we wanted to go – too far we surmised, though it wasn’t clear from the grunts. The second cabbie was fine, in a nice modern sedan he had us back to our hotel in half an hour.
You can check out where the concert was held at Leonard’s roadblog. Istanbul is at page 22, quite early in the tour.
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