Istanbul - Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Monuments, Museum

Our first stop of the day was the Hagia Sophia, which is a fantastic old building that was first one of the greatest cathedrals of all time (completed in 537), then one of the greatest mosques of all time (converted in 1453), and is now a grand museum (since 1935). As such, it is in wonderful condition for its age. Plus, it's a marvelous work of architecture. It's like a pantheon built atop a bunch of partial pantheons. And for all the crowds, it is moving to see such wonderful Christian and Muslim art displayed side-by-side. Hopefully someday this will no longer be a mark of uniqueness.

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Before heading in, we stopped to look at the 18th century Ottoman fountain for pre-prayer ablution.

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Here is the main "donation mosaic" showing Constantine presenting a model of Constantinople and Justinian presenting a model of the Hagia Sophia to Mary and Baby Jesus. There were others of this nature throughout.

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I seem to be facing Mecca.

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Next we went to the Blue Mosque, which is just a couple blocks away across a park. The Blue Mosque was built in the 1600s by Sultan Ahmet, and is very similar architecturally to the Hagia Sophia. However, it's always been a mosque, and they'd worked a lot of the architecture kinks out in the intervening millennium, so the dome has never collapsed and there are more windows. The decor is also completely different: all red, white, and blue tiles and mosaics rather than dark marble. Although the Blue Mosque is slightly smaller than the Hagia Sophia, the light colors made it feel bigger.

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After the mosque, we walked along the park that used to be the Hippodrome, or old racetrack. In the park, once surrounded by the Hippodrome, are a number of interesting monuments. As you can see Istanbul is quite a crossroads.

There was a fountain given to Turkey by Germany.

An Egyptian Obelisk with a Turkish foundation showing, among other things, the Obelisk being erected on this spot. Cool, eh?

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The Column of Constantine, which was actually made in Turkey, but is now just a brick obelisk because the bronze plating was stolen during the crusades.

A triple serpent column looted from Delphi (the heads disappeared just 300 years ago). You can see the Column of Constantine in the background.

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And finally this area also used to have 4 beautiful bronze horses. They were looted during the crusades and we saw them at San Marco in Venice. They are thought to have come from Greece originally.

Our final stop was the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum where we saw many beautiful things.

Lots of Koran holders like this one.

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Some beautiful calligraphy. This is the sultan's signature.

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And, of course, carpets.

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The museum also had a fantastic view of the Blue Mosque with the Egyptian Obelisk in the foreground.

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Downstairs were exhibits on various nomadic peoples of Turkey. It looked pretty interesting, but we were dead tired and about out of time.

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