Woke on our fourth day to thunder and lightning. Thor at work in the heavens above Istanbul. Quite dramatic. Appropriate day to visit places devoted the the glory of the gods. Started at the Hagia Sofia. Impressive from the outside.
Spectacular within.
Hard to absorb the fact that it has stood in this place for over 1600 years – surviving earthquakes, the sacking of the city by Crusaders who left behind the Venetian, Henricus Dandolo – here’s his tomb. There is a legend that the Ottomans so despised him his pilfering, they dug up his bones and scattered them to the four winds.
Visits from Vikings (who left behind graffiti).
Changing religious affiliations according to who was in charge. Started Orthodox, had a brief spell as a Catholic place of worship then back to Orthodox before being transformed into a mosque by Mehmet the Conqueror in the fifteenth century. Which it remained until the 1930’s when Attaturk turned the building into a museum. Rare transformation for a mosque. Now it’s surging tourists – in their hordes. Thousands fit easily into the enormous open space of the main section.
You walk up a ramp of stones, polished by millions of feet to a gallery above.
Images everywhere. Christian mosaics, their tesserae (tiny glass tiles containing gold leaf) still glistening despite being painted over for hundreds of years.
Islamic medallions.
Christian paintings of angels and cherubs.
Islamic patterned roofs and walls.
And the the mihrab pointing the way to Mecca.
Places where Sultans have been crowned.
Beautiful columns.
We found one a little askew. And others showing signs of early maintenance work.
And always remember to look up.
The gold painted staircase is from where the Imam speaks. The Sultan sat behind the beautiful marble fretwork.
They have found the ruins of an even older place outside but have stopped digging further in case they damage the foundations of Hagia Sofia. History everywhere.
Over then to the Blue Mosque. So named for the beautiful blue Iznik tiles that dominate the space. Different hues of blue – gorgeous.
Enormous columns. And more tiles.
Lovely carpet with its own touch of blue.
From there, we visited a secular site – a temple attesting to the high art of engineering. The Basilica Cistern. An enormous underground water tank supported by rows of columns. Created in the sixth century it is basically the same water storage and distribution system that we use today. Only a small amount of water now but in its heyday it would have been filled to the ceiling – brought from Belgrad Forest, 19 kilometres north of city. Beautiful arches and columns, some of them recycled from other buildings. The interior especially sealed to keep the water in.
There are two columns with Medusa heads at their foot in one of the corners. The heads have been deliberately positioned, one upside down and one sideways. Historians not sure why – to ward off evil spirits. A reminder of the distant age, and different beliefs at the time this was built. It was forgotten for years, then an enterprising scholar found it in the fifteenth century. He was investigating why some house-holds were able to draw water from underneath their houses – and there it was!
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