Every major world city needs a palace or several. Istanbul has two main palaces. The more famous and older one is Topkapi - original site of the Roman settlement, of Byzantium, and home of the Ottoman Sultans for centuries. Visiting Topkapi requires passage through a series of gates. The first gate was watched by armed guards - modern soldiers - not ceremonial guards. They didn't seem too concerned about the masses of tourists, but they looked like they could turn serious rather quickly if need be. Topkapi was maybe the first and only place we needed to wait in lines. Luckily the long ticket line could be bypassed by using the automatic ticket kiosks instead. with tickets in hand, we entered the second gate into a large courtyard with the court kitchens and some gardens. Unfortunately, the kitchens were not open to visitors when we were there. Instead we entered the third gate and visited the Sultan's harem, which refers to both the location within the palace as well as the women who lived there. We found this part of the visit to be very enlightening, because we learned details about life in the harem and the social structure as well as the physical layout that supported that social structure. The Sultan's mother was in charge of the harem. Her rooms physically separated the Sultan's rooms from those of the harem. Passage between the two areas had to go through the mother's apartments. She and the Sultan's wives decided with whom the Sultan would "spend time." Not the usual picture one has of a harem.
Near the harem is the Divan Tower, one of the architectural landmarks of the palace, where the council met to discuss issues of the empire. The Sultan would either attend in person or he would listen in from another, connected room. The council members sat on low couches - hence the term, divan. Also nearby were the Treasures of Turkey, which included lots of weapons - especially swords, some armor, the Topkapi dagger, and some of the world's largest diamonds. When the Ottomans conquered the Middle East, they acquired some important religious items - including David's sword, Moses' staff, Abraham's turban, a caste of Mohammed's footprint, and some of his beard. Sections of the gutter from the Kaaba in Mecca were also on display. This display was of great interest to the Muslim tourists, especially. Another nearby room housed portraits of the Sultans. The fourth and final gate lead into gardens with great views Istanbul and the Bosphorus. There were lots of flowers in bloom. Some of the later Sultans built pavilions to commemorate various victorious battles.
We then immersed ourselves in the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market. Based on the descriptions that we had read, we were expecting to be more overwhelmed by the Grand Bazaar. It was undoubtedly big and mazelike, but organized and easily navigable. We were just window shopping, looking for some souvenir items that might be possible to take home. It seemed like about a third of the bazaar was devoted to jewelry, with other sections for clothes of all kinds, shoes, tourist goods, leather, food, spices, kitchen items, and other miscellaneous goods. As we walked along, we were greeted with "Hello. Now it's my turn. Would you like to see/buy ..." Between the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market is another open-air maze of streets focused on the garment trade. The Spice Market was on the schedule for a subsequent day, so we breezed through, just enjoying the sights and smells.
After a while, it was all a blur.
No comments:
Post a Comment