Istanbul's beautiful skyline.
A few weeks after our trip to Germany, we decided that we should at least try and explore some of Turkey. Turkey is a HUGE country and since there is so much history here, there is a lot to see! I knew that Turkey was a central part of the Greeks, Romans and Ottoman Empires, but I never realised how big a part it actually played in these empires until we went around.
First of all, since we are in Istanbul, we should at least see some more of this magnificent city. Our first trip was to the Maiden's tower or Kiz Kulesi in Turkish. It is located in the Bosphorus just off the shore of the Asian side. It was built in 408 BC to control movements on the Bosphorus and was also used as a lighthouse for many years. It has been restored many times, the latest in 1998 and it is now open for the public.
Maiden's Tower
There are many legends about the Tower. The most famous one involves a Sultan's daughter. It was prophesised that she would die on her 18th birthday by a snake bite so her father put her on the island away from snakes. On her 18th birthday he took her a basket of fruit and out of it came a snake that bit her and she died. This is why it is called the Maiden's tower. Now it is just a cafe and a restaurant. It was a beautiful day when we went and the view was amazing.
View from the Maiden's Tower with one of the Bosphorus bridges.
On our way to The Maiden's Tower in the boat.
After the Maiden's tower we decided to go the most famous mosque in Istanbul, Aya Sofia.
Aya Sofia
Shailen by the entrance to Aya Sofia.
Aya Sofia in Turkish or Hagia Sophia in Greek, Sancta Sophia in Latin or just Church of the Divine Wisdom in English! As you have already ascertained, Aya Sofia was a church built in 537 by Emperor Justinian in an attempt to restore the Greatness of the Roman Empire. He definitely achieved this and he summed it up when he first walked inside and proclaimed “Glory to God that I have been judged worthy of such a work. Oh Solomon! I have outdone you!” When we stepped foot inside we could easily excuse his cockiness. The Church reigned as the greatest church in Christendom until the conquest of 1453 by Memhet the Conqueror who converted it into a mosque (1453 is a really important year for the Turks as this was the year that the Turks captured back Istanbul, then Constantinople, from the Greeks and apparently at soccer matches when the 2 countries play, there are banners saying “Remember 1453!”!!! – crazy stuff!). It stayed as a mosque until 1935 when Atatürk himself proclaimed it a museum.
Now to go off on a little tangent, Atatürk means ‘Father Turk’ and that was the name given to Mustafa Kemal who revolutionised Turkey. Mustafa Kemal emerged as a strong leader from the Battle of Gallipoli in WWI (this is the battle where the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corp) and British troops were hopelessly defeated). After the War, foreign countries occupied much of Turkey and there were Treaties diminishing the Turks Land (much like what happened to Germany) and as so often happened, a movement began to claim lost land back. Mustafa was the man that stepped up to the plate and took charge and succeeded. After Turkey was once again unified he set about changing a few things. He was an extremely forward thinker and wanted to push Turkey to become a more Western Country. During the 1920’s and 30’s he created the Turkish language and got rid of the Arabic scrips and adopted the Roman alphabet, banned the Fez, adopted the Gregorian calendar (what we use) and declared that the Turks have surnames (something they never had before)! He did some great things and at a time when the world churned out the likes of Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler, it seems a shame to put him into that list because he showed that radical reforms can be successful when handled the right way. And because of this there are many statues of him all over Turkey, every classroom in a school has to have his picture in it as well as many shops. After being on the wrong side in WWI and after the death of Atatürk in 1938, they stayed out of WWII.
Back to Aya Sofia… It was really a remarkable sight to behold inside, even though scaffolding was visible in the main dome (there’s a lot of restoration work that is taking place inside that will be ongoing for another few years at least).
Inside Aya Sofia.
The central Dome with all the scaffolding.
The Mihrad which shows the direction of Mecca and therefore which direction they pray towards. This was added when it was turned into a Mosque.
The Minbar where the Imam stands and delivers the sermons from.
The Sultan's lodge. So that the Sultan could come and pray without being seen.
The mosque has 2 levels so you can walk up to the second level and look down on everything which is quite nice.
Walking up to the second level.
Looking down in to the Mosque.
It’s amazing that two different religions used this building as a holy place. There were no minarets when the church was built but was added after 1453. Inside the church there were obviously mosaics depicting Christ and many Christian scenes and once the church was converted to a mosque these mosaics weren’t “kosher’ with Islam. Luckily, instead of destroying the mosaics, they just plastered the wall to cover it up which makes it easier for us now to remove the plaster and see the artwork from 1500 years ago.
The Commenos Mosaic. Virgin Mary is in the middle holding Christ with Emperor John II Kommenos on her right and Empress Eirene on her left.
This Mosaic shows The Virgin Mary holding Christ in the middle with Emperor Constantine on her left offering a model of the City and on her right Emperor Justinian I offering a model of Aya Sofia. 
This Mosaic was over the Imperial gate which was used only by the emperors as they entered the church. Mosaic could be either Leo VI the wise or his son Constantine VII bowing down in front of Christ Pantocrator. 
Alisa standing where the guards once stood.
There was also a column dubbed the ‘weeping column’ which has a copper facing that’s pierced by a hole. Legend has it that those that put their finger in the hole and makes a wish will see the wish come true if the finger emerges moist. We tried it and all we felt was the cold marble on our finger, we couldn’t tell if it was moist or cold…
Shailen with his thumb in the weeping column.
From Aya Sofia we decided to go and check out the Basilica Cisterns or Yerebatan Sarayi in Turkish. They were built in the 6th Century under the city of Istanbul to hold water that came from the aqueduct we talked about in our other Istanbul post. It is a huge 143 by 65m and has 336 columns holding it up. It is capable of holding 80,000 cubic meters of water. One of the strangest things inside the cisterns are the columns that have a statue of Medusa as their base. These blocks have obviously been re-used as one is upside down and the other is sideways.
Inside the beautifully lit up Cisterns.
One of the Medusa heads. This one is upside down.
At this point when writing this Shailen has gone to NZ so I (Alisa) will finish this one and the next couple of blog entries :)
One day Shailen, Mum and I went to see the Archeology museum. This place is huge and although we spent a good couple of hours there we didn't even begin to see everything. For us the best things were the amazing Sarcophagus and the chain that was once across the Golden Horn. The Sarcophagi have incredible detail on them and on some of them you could even see the remains of the colours they used. When completed they must have been an incredible sight! Below are some of the best ones.
Shailen by the entrance to the Museum.
Sarcophagi from the Royal Necropolis of Sidon.
A model giving you an idea of what colours they were.
I think we mentioned in our other Istanbul blog about how there was once a chain across the Bosphorus restricting movement. The same is also said about the Golden Horn which is a inlet of the Bosphorus. Mum told us one story about how when one boat tried to cross the chain they all ran to the back of the boat until the front lifted out over the chain and then all ran back to the front to get the back over! I don't know if this is true or not but is worth a laugh thinking about it. The original chain is still in the Museum.
One Friday after school we caught a free bus out to the Energy Museum. It used to be an old power station and has been converted into a museum. It was fun having a look around and it is quite hands on. But the best thing was standing infront of a camera and seeing us appear as seen below. We think they were infrared or heat sensing cameras but they gave us a laugh!
From left to right: Dad, Me, Mum and Shailen looking lovely in yellow and red.
So although we have seen quite a bit of Istanbul there is still so much more to see! We haven't been to the blue Mosque yet which is the only Mosque to have 6 Minarets. We haven't been to either the Topkapi or Dolmabache Palaces and the list goes on! But first we are going to see some more of Turkey itself so stay tuned!
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