Istanbul was Constantinople

As the song goes, "Istanbul was Constantinople, but now Istanbul is not Constantinople..." Luckily, Istanbul is a great place to visit!

We started our visit at the Blue Mosque (also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque) completed in 1616. The Blue Mosque has six minarets. When the number of minarets was initially revealed, the Sultan was criticized for this decision, since this was, at the time, the same number as at the mosque in Mecca. The Sultan overcame this problem by paying for a seventh minaret at the Mecca mosque.


The design for the Blue Mosque was inspired by its neighbor, the Hagia Sofia, but it is also very unique. The interior of the Blue Mosque is breath-taking. The columns and ceiling are painted in beautiful colors in amazing patterns and intricate details.


Behind our family and the fountain, you can see the Hagia Sofia, also known as the Aya Sofya in Turkish. Originally built as a Byzantine church by Emperor Justinian I, it was completed in 537 A.D. and represented cutting edge architecture at the time. Famous in particular for its massive free-standing dome, it was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years.

When Justintian saw the structure and its interior for the first time after its completion, he supposedly exclaimed, "Solomon, I have outdone thee!" It remained a church for over 900 years until 1453, when Sultan Mehmed II conquered the city of Constantinople. He changed the city to Istanbul and the Hagia Sophia to a mosque. Now a museum, Hagia Sophia is universally acknowledged as one of the great buildings of the world.

Ariana and Corey are standing in the Topkapi Palace, the official residence in the city of the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years of their 600-year reign, from 1465 to 1853. Initial construction began in 1459, ordered by Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople.


Istanbul stradles two continents with Europe on the northern side, Asia on the southern and the Bosphorus Straight separating the two. The Bosphorus connects the waters of the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn. Merchant shipping not only brought properity in ancient times, but judging from the incredible number of ships we saw in the waters, it is a major part of their economy today.

We just shipped ourselves across the Straight in a local ferry to Üsküdar to say we'd been to Asia. We walked down the crowded sidewalks and streets to reach another small ferry (boat) that shuttled us to the Maiden's Tower. While it was probably built to control the flow of ships and serve as a lighthouse, the legend says it was built by a Sultan to protect his daughter after an oracle predicted she would die from a snakebite. Supposedly she lived in the tower on the water until the Sultan brought her a basket of fruit with a snake hidden inside. Now a restaurant and bar are inside the tower but a good view exists at the top. On the walk back to the ferry we were able to stop and rest on the beautiful carpets and pillows that they lay out on the tiered water barriers. From here we could view the ships and the old town of Istanbul.

The Basilica Cistern, or Yerebatan Sarayı - "Sunken Palace" in Turkish, is the largest of several hundred water cisterns in Istanbul. Built near the Hagia Sophia during the reign of Emperor Justinian I, it provided water to the Great Palace of Constantinople and then to the Topkapi Palace. The cistern is capable of holding 2,800,000 cu ft of water.

In a corner of the cistern, the bases of two columns are carved with the head of Medusa, one resting on her side and the other placed upside-down. No one is quite sure where the heads came from or why they were placed in a corner of the dark water filled cistern. Tradition has it that the blocks are oriented sideways and upside-down in order to negate the power of Medusa's gaze.

We loved the food in Istanbul as well as the warm, friendly people. Eating meals in outdoor cafes and enjoying ice cream or baklava in the streets added to our wonderful experience. One waiter even gave Brody some excellent advice on keeping his hair. Brody needs to shave his head completely every spring and then his hair will come back every year, preventing balding or a receding hairline. The waiter with long thick black hair insisted this tradition allowed him to keep his hair while his brothers are losing theirs. ...We'll see if Brody follows his advice but don't hold your breath.

We were also able to visit the Istanbul Archaelogoical Museum which houses the Alexander the Great Sarcophagus. Because the sarcophagus is covered with detailed carvings of battles and supposedly the life of Alexander the Great, people thought it was the sarcophagus of Alexander himself. Eventually they discovered it was actually a Sidonian King's, but it is still beautiful.

Istanbul proved to be one of the best trips we took. I'm so glad we were able to make it happen on one of our last vacations in Poland.