We spent about a month very happily in Istanbul. Tom started his contract and spent most of each day working, but managed to join me in the late afternoons/evenings for outings and on his days off. I bought a museum card and proceeded to work my way through many of the major and less major tourist sites in the city.
Because (i) I was going to have quite a bit of time in the city; (ii) I was going to be wandering about and looking at stuff largely by myself (and I typically prefer to have some other poor soul to whom to generally exclaim about what I am viewing); and (iii) I am a massive history geek, I decided to make the time in Istanbul somewhat educational and read a bit about the history of the Ottomans alongside my visits around the city. With this in mind, I read a few books on arrival to get a general feel for the place. After about the tenth tidbit of information I offered Thomas in which he had limited interest mid-proposal writing, he informed me that while it was very nice I was learning while he was earning, please could I stop interrupting so much and possibly just go out and check out the sights?
Anyway, I read the following books and set out some thoughts on them below. You’re welcome.
1. The Bridge (Geert Mak): This is pretty short and provides a general overview of the history of the Galata bridge set against a backdrop of modern day use and its historic importance in Istanbul (non-fiction, but very accessibly written). Definitely a nice, succinct introduction to the history of the place and modern relevance.
2. The Architect’s Apprentice (Elif Shafak): A friend of mine recommended this and it is by one of the few Turkish authors commonly available in translated form. I very much enjoyed this and it provided a lovely overview of the Ottoman Empire at its absolute height through the eyes of a fictional apprentice of the Chief Royal Architect, Mimar Sinan. Sinan was commissioned to design around 400 buildings in Istanbul (many of which remain today) and, as such, left a major mark on the city. I found this really great in terms of having a general understanding of the key players at the height of the empire and some engagement in the various specific sites I was visiting.
3. Letters from Turkey by Lady Mary Wortley Montague: This is a folio of letters written by Lady Mary, the wife of the English Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in the early 1700s. She wrote the letters to various friends back home when she accompanied her husband on his mission to Constantinople to assist in the peace negotiations between the Ottoman and the Austro-Hungarian Empires. These were absolutely fantastic and covered all sorts of observations ranging from architecture to politics, fashion, commerce, culture and, perhaps most famously, what she could find out about the Ottoman harems of the time. The letters are surprisingly easy to read for the time period and I would highly recommend these as it absolutely feeds the imagination when walking around the city. I may or may not have had some fantasies about getting to travel about Europe at this time (the letters actually track her travels from England through to Constantinople overland and back via the Mediterranean and Italy).
So, book report aside, I obviously started my month out hitting the big ticket items, but I have split this epistle into general categories of attraction (I was pretty excited about all of this, so apologies in advance of the somewhat descriptive nature of the balance of this post – skip to the pictures if it is not your thing). Normal programming (read various cycling related disasters) to resume in final posts from the trip (coming shortly).
The Palaces.
I visited Topkapi, Dolmabahce, Beylerbeyi and Kucuksu palaces.
I had been to Topkapi before and was very impressed – this remained the case this time around. Topkapi was built in the 1400s shortly after the Ottomans conquered Istanbul and is very oriental in style. While it has large grounds, it actually seems on a rather smaller scale than European palaces I have visited, which I think is partly due to it consisting of a lot of separate buildings, rather than one monumental structure. That said, according to the observation of one Lady Mary mentioned above: “The buildings are all of white stone, leaded on the top, with gilded turrets and spires, which look very magnificent; and, indeed, I believe there is no Christian-king’s palace half so large.” So, suffice to say, perhaps I am thinking of later iterations of European palaces because Lady Mary certainly thought it was big enough in the early 1700s.
The interiors of various sections are designed with lots of splendour – floor to ceiling Iznik tiles, rich Turkish carpets, hammams (bathhouses), low futon style seating and warren-like rooms with courtyards in between and grounds that would have been filled by peacocks and gazelles, not to mention the Sultan’s substantial menagerie. Very much a palace that had been built and added to over the centuries and the seat of the Sultanate for circa 400 years. As a side note, there is also a truly spectacular oriental armour collection that is definitely worth seeing and a selection of kitchen/tableware, coffee implements and smoking paraphernalia worth checking out – diamond encrusted coffee cup, anyone? Ceremonial dagger set with emeralds? The world’s fifth largest diamond? Jewel studded soup bowels? The Ottomans had nice things.
Dolmabahce was an entirely different experience. This palace was built in the 1800s and would look at home in Europe. Truly a mish-mash of different styles, it is one monumental structure divided into wings, large numbers of grand reception halls and various apartments. The approach here seems to have been more along the lines of wanting the best of everything included and no real synthesis in style. Chandeliers are made from the best crystal in England, Baccarat crystal from France or of Murano glass from Italy, ornaments are Chinese and Italian, furniture is from France, England or China. There is a seemingly endless use of gold gilt finishing. There are still Turkish carpets and textiles throughout (from factories specially set up to weave these for the palace in Hereka), but the effect is overwhelmingly much less uniquely oriental. This was the seat of the Sultanate for around 70 years or so and the residence of the first two presidents of the Republic when in Istanbul (I guess, if this fantastic establishment was available for residence post-abolition of the Sultanate, it would have been rude not to).
I think what I particularly enjoyed this time around was getting to see Topkapi and Dolmabahce in particular on consecutive days as it was interesting to compare the styles and prevailing attitudes of the empire across the different periods of history. And, perhaps most importantly, I now am rather certain that I require no less than six chandeliers, thirty carpets, floor to ceiling iznik tiles and bespoke guilt chaise lounges to appropriately deck out my living room. Lucky Tom.
The Mosques.
Some of the mosques I visited included Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii), Suleymaniye Camii, Rustem Pasha Camii, Tophane (Nusretiye Camii) and Bogazi Buyuk Mecidiye Camii (Ortakoy Mosque). I also checked out Selimiye mosque in Edirne and it is somewhat related to the Istanbul mosques.
Hagia Sophia was once the largest Church in Istanbul (and had the largest dome in Christendom – I think). Following the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in the 1400s, it was promptly turned into a mosque and, in the 1500s, underwent renovations and restoration work at the hand of Sinan. I really love this mosque – partly due to the fact that the history it is quite different to other mosques around the city. Its silhouette is much more monumental than the typical elegance of Sinan’s creations and the interior is filled with mosaics not present in other mosques. In addition, there are a few depictions of people that have been retained (including the virgin and child), which is pretty unique.
Similarly, the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii) is a bit of a big deal (see image at the top of this post). The complete covering of Iznik tiles is incredibly impressive and stunning. This was constructed in the early 1600s and based on designs of Sinan, even though he had since passed. Interestingly, this was after the height of the Ottoman Empire’s military might and the mosque was commissioned from treasury funds, not from war spoils as with most of the constructions of imperial mosques during the period when Sinan was working. No mosques had been commissioned for half a century by this point – but one cannot argue that they did not come back with a bang. Sadly, on this visit, a lot of restoration work was being carried out and the entire interior was covered with scaffolding, so I was quite grateful I had seen it previously as it would have been disappointing to miss it.
The mosque commissioned by Suleymaniye the Magnificent (Suleymaniye Camii) was designed by Sinan and I was keen to check it out due to my reading. It is one of the main mosques one views when sitting on the Galata side of the Golden Horn and looking back at the old city and it occupies a commanding place on one of the seven hills that make up Istanbul. Indeed, the site is massive (including all the attendant buildings that went along with mosques in the day (hammams, madresas (schools), shops to fund the mosque, etc)). The mosque itself is really absolutely magnificent, but I think that the exterior and the views from the hill on which it sits are the real draw card as the interior, while lovely, is not actually more impressive than lots of other mosques in the city – albeit, none seem quite so massive.
Selimiye Camii in Edirne was constructed by Selim II, the son of Suleymaniye the Magnificent. Selim II apparently wanted his mosque in Edirne as he had spent a large part of his youth there and it would have, perhaps, seemed a bit crass to overshadow his father’s mosque in Istanbul. The Selimiye was incredibly impressive. I also felt that the interior was possibly more impressive than the mosque of his father.
Bogazi Buyuk Mecidiye Camii (Ortakoy Mosque) is notable for being super baroque (and therefore quite different from most of the other mosques we viewed) and located right under one of the main suspension bridges over the Bosphorus. Ortakoy itself is a bit of a cute touristy area. Not a major attraction, but a nice spot for a lunch by the seaside or an ice cream if you have the time (also, it has one of the largest selection of purveyors of stuffed baked potatoes I have yet seen – weird, but there you go). The mosque itself and the situation was pretty exceptional right on the water.
The Museums.
Because I was around a while, I went to a lot more museums than one would typically have the opportunity to visit on a trip to Istanbul. Some of these were fantastic, others were not really my thing – but, depending on your bent, may be interesting.
The Galata Tower is not really a museum, but the tower is so iconic with its stubby body and fairytale style witch’s hat top that it is worth a visit. The fact that it has commanding views of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus do make it worth the price to visit the top (particularly at sunset), but admittedly, the tower itself is probably more impressive from outside. The tower stands on a site that was originally used as a lighthouse by the Byzantines. Later, when the Genoese assisted the Ottoman rulers to rebuff the crusaders, the area of Galata was gifted to the Genoese from which to have a base to conduct trade in the region. They promptly built a tower and city walls around Galata and this became the “European” side of the city. Further up the hill in Pera, all the embassies of various foreign nations were housed and many of the Christian and Jewish communities of Istanbul made their homes here.
I really rated the Grand Palace Mosaics museum. It is very small and certainly not the best mosaics museum I have ever been to (the Bardo in Tunis being an all-time highlight after which it is impossible to consider other such museums in the same league), but it is the only remaining Roman structure in Istanbul and, on this basis, pretty cool. The museum is actually the floor of the old grand palace that stood in the old city of Istanbul during the time of the Roman empire when Constantine relocated the capital. The floor, while not complete, does have enough very impressive mosaics left over to be worth the visit. I particularly enjoyed the monkey below and the scenes of various wild animals devouring prey.
Closed this time around, we went to Chora Church and Basilica Cistern last time we were in Istanbul and they definitely deserve a mention. The Chora museum is an amazing old church built outside the city walls by Justinianus in the 5th century AD. The mosaics and frescoes date from some time later, but remain incredible examples of Byzantine art. The Basilica Cistern is also worth a mention as it is right in Sultanahmet (around the corner from Topkapi and Hagia Sophia) and one can wander the stunning underground water supply of the royals. European “discovery” of this place was documented when one traveller noted that fresh water fish were being sold in the market. On asking locals where these specimens were sourced in Istanbul, he was led to the underground cisterns from which the fish came.
I also hit the Islamic Art Museum, Istanbul Archeology Museum, Islamic Science Museum, Galata Mevlevi House Museum (Galata Dervish Museum), Rumeli Fortress, Jewish Museum of Turkey, Istanbul Modern Art Museum, etc. You get the idea. Not all of these were super worthwhile, but some had some interesting bits and pieces. For example, the Islamic Science Museum had a room devoted to medical implements used during the Ottoman period and there was a very interesting (if somewhat uncomfortable) description of cataract operations being carried out hundreds of years prior to being part of Western medicine (spoiler: they used a metal syringe thing to suck the cataract off of the eye!). There were also various scissors for cutting eyelids and other delicate body parts, which were pretty gory. Separately from the museum, but on the same general theme, when Lady Mary spent time here in the 1700s, the Ottomans were already inoculating against smallpox as a common practice. This was long before it became a thing in England. When Lady Mary went back to England after her sojourn in Constantinople, she brought the approach with her and advocated for inoculation – eventually winning over the royalty of the day.
We also spent a day walking the entirety of the old city walls that are still standing. While not the first thing one would choose to do, wandering the walls and outskirts of the city on a sunny (but very crisp) day with all the monuments covered in a dusting of snow was pretty magical.
Shopping & Food (possibly the best bit).
I absolutely love Istanbul for shopping – there are so many different things to get excited about; however, for Tom and I, we can just never seem to walk past a carpet.
Obviously there are thousands upon thousands of shops carrying carpets from all over in Istanbul. However, we could not really be bothered with the whole performance to get one this time around and, after a serious discussion, we both agreed we would forgo purchasing more carpets. Particularly when we did not even have the floor space on which to put them and I had nightmare inducing visions of rigging up a carpet tent over the top of the bicycles and us eventually cycling the countryside with our wares stuck to it like old-school travelling salesmen. So, no carpets. It was known. This lasted about a day until we stumbled upon the vendor we bought from last time we were in Istanbul. We managed to look over everything in Abdullah’s shop and the poor guy was in a mad sweat by the time we finally selected and bargained for the carpets (yes, plural). Not a major shock as we struggle to travel anywhere in the Middle East without buying carpets and Turkey is no different.
No great surprise, Turkish food is excellent, cheap and available everywhere. The options are truly endless, but I will only mention two items in the interest of attempting to reduce the already ridiculous word count on this post.
One of my favourite items in Istanbul is the fish durum (fish wrap). This is sold particularly on either side of the Galata bridge next to the shore and consists of a grilled fillet wrapped with lettuce, spicy onions, lemon juice and pomegranate molasses. Quite possibly my number one favourite thing to do in Istanbul is to buy a couple of beers, pick up a fish durum and sit on the shore watching the sunset and listening to the magrib call to prayer over old Istanbul while consuming the same. There is really nothing quite like it.
The humble simit also deserves a mention: a sesame covered bagel/pretzel thing that is excellent with a cup of tea for breakfast and is also available at all bakeries. This was our staple throughout our time in Turkey and we grew to be true aficionados of whether or not a simit was up to scratch.
Turkey has a bunch of indigenous grape varietals. We obviously checked this out. I would say that Turkish wine had a few specific characteristics for me: (i) it is heavily taxed and therefore quite expensive by comparison to its European counterparts; and (ii) there is some real plonk. That said, there is also some really excellent wine. For my part, I thought they did better with blends than single grape bottles – but Tom was not entirely convinced on this. I cannot say that we bothered with this beyond Istanbul given the price and likely quality. Instead, we happily consumed beer and/or raki (aniseed flavoured liqueur) as the mood took us. After a while, as we did more wild camping and got into rural areas, we gave up and bought bottles of Johnny Walker to swig at around the campfire. Priorities.
Okay. Deep breath. That is it for Istanbul. Suffice to say, this whole post could have been summed by stating at the start that I absolutely love this city and would happily relocate in a heartbeat if only there were jobs employing corporate lawyers on the Bosphorus.
December / January 2020
Good stuff, I should’ve checked this out years ago