Un voyage en Istanbul (qui n'est plus Constantinople)

Every time I hear the name 'Istanbul', that darn song runs through my head. ("Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople. Been a long time gone..." Anyway, this post is brought to you by my hubby who was recently in Istanbul...not Constantinople.

"Here's a little breakdown of some pictures from my recent trip to Istanbul. I didn't have that much time for tourist stuff, but I managed to squeeze in a little bit of sightseeing. My first impression of the city was that I have never in my life seen so many mosques! Every couple of blocks or so there was another domed central building with a minaret or two. Here is the shot from my hotel room. (All the thin little towers are minarets.)

One of the days I was there was a national holiday, so there were flags out everywhere including at this palace:

Two of the more famous sites in Istanbul are the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, and I visited both in one morning (it helps to get up early and beat the crowds). The Hagia Sofia was built in the 560's (no I didn't drop a digit) and was the largest cathedral in the world for about a thousand years or so. The Ottomans turned it into a mosque in the 15^th century and then Ataturk turned it into a museum in the 1930s. It is enormous, and the pictures below don't really do the space justice.

Here is the dome and a couple of mosaics (fairly recent additions-from the 9^th century).

I thought that this doorstep captured the feel of the age of the building. That was only one of the doors, and yet the marble has been worn down by countless feet over the centuries.

Some random Viking (!) graffiti that also dates from the 9^th century. Darn Norsemen. If they weren't rampaging and pillaging, they were carving their names in runes in churches.

Here is the Blue Mosque seen from the Hagia Sofia (they are very close together).

The Blue Mosque is a working mosque (so we had to remove shoes and the women had to cover their heads) from 1609 which means about the same time Jamestown was being founded.

These are some shots of the interior of the aptly-named Blue Mosque.

Here is some of the detail of one of the ceilings in the same neighborhood, I really think the tile work is amazing.

I also managed to get down to visit a Roman cistern (underground water tank). I thought it was pretty cool, especially since it really reminded me of the Mines of Moria (from the Lord of the Rings). I could practically hear Howard Shore's movie score in the background...

And finally, here are a couple of shots of the Bosporus Look, Asia!

Here is something cool you may not know about the Bosporus On the surface there is a standard current flowing from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean. However, there is a dramatic switch as you descend and there is another current flowing the opposite direction, back into the Black Sea. In ancient times (prior to the invention of the outboard motor) sailors would tie a rope to a basket, weigh it down with stones so that it dropped below the surface current, and then let the undercurrent pull their boat to the Black Sea!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog..."