Day #3, Tuesday — Cistern, Archaeology, Bazaar

This morning we ate breakfast up on the roof!  What a view!  Here's the Blue Mosque (again) off in the distance:

And here's the Aya Sophia (again) from our breakfast table:

Behind us was a fine view of the Sea of Marmara, lots of boat traffic coming up into the Golden Horn. I'll get you a photo of that tomorrow.

After breakfast, we hoofed it over to the Basilica Cistern. What's that? Well, back when the Byzantines were building the Aya Sophia, around the year 532, the Emperor Justinian also built a basilica with a water cistern below it. (Or, maybe it's that the cistern initially WAS a basilica... It's not clear to me.) Water was brought in through underground pipes from the Belgrade forests north of Istanbul to provide drinking water for the emperors. The cistern was constructed using 332 columns, many of which were salvaged from ruined temples.

Eventually the emperors moved to a different place, and for a thousand years or so people forgot that the cistern was down there underground. In the mid 16th century, a scholar doing research found out that people were getting drinking water through holes in their basement floors! What? And some people were even fishing through those basement holes! It wasn't until 1987 that the place was cleaned up and opened for people to come in and take a look.

You can tell that the cistern was built about the same time as Aya Sophia because the vaulted ceilings show exactly the same brickwork design. Alas, you can hardly see it here in the dark:

Two of the Greek columns have stunningly wonderful sculptures of the Medusa on their bases. One is upside-down:

And the other is sideways:  

Why sideways and upside down? Because they fit the columns better that way? Because they could deflect the power of the Medusa's gaze if they turned her around? Let me tell you, when you're down there with water dripping on your head and your feet slipping on the wet walkways and the carp swimming around, you are not interested in encountering snakes or in being turned into a rock.

After that damp but beautiful place, we strolled around an area near the Topkapi palace (closed today,) and found some street art:

And a lovely place to stop for lemon-mint tea and a cup of Turkish coffee:

A short walk brought us to the Turkish Archeological Museum, really a campus of three buildings. Here's the Tile Museum, with incredibly beautiful tiles from the 15th and 16th century. I was too tired to take photos of the tiles, so all you get here is the exterior of the building.

Inside the main archeology building, another Medusa greets visitors at the top of a flight of stairs. (The only problem with today was that there were way too many stairs.) 

There is a phenomenal collection of sarcophagi here, including ancient Egyptian ones dating back to 500 BC.  I found this guy's face particularly beautiful:

Outside in the museum complex, the stonework on the paths is laced with lovely green moss:

Tired as we were after all of this, we were determined to check out the Grand Bazaar and maybe do some shopping. We hopped a tram, got off two stops down the track, and there we were at the Grand Bazaar. Check out the vaulted ceilings!

This labyrinthine maze of a market has over 4,000 shops! It's dizzying. 

It was too much for me. 

Sarah stayed to shop and bargain. 

I caught the train back up to Sultanahmet, where I passed this lovely little mosque as I walked back to our guesthouse:

Tomorrow, I'll take a solo ferry trip out to a nearby island! Looking forward to the change of pace.