pics from the last couple of days.
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This is one of the Suleymaniye Mosque, one of the largest of the mosques because of all its associated buildings -- schools, hospital, etc., most of which are now shops and restaurants.
It has much less in the way of design, tiles etc than many others, but it is huge and much lighter feeling than other mosques.
These are frescos from a really lovely church/mosque called Kariye, most of which
we couldn't see because it was under construction.
Before leaving for our cruise along the Bosphorus on Thursday, we stopped in a small
mosque near the Spice Market. It was a little jewel of a place, with so many gorgeous tiles.
Here is a sample of some of the patterns along just one wall.
Thursday morning went to the Topkapi Palace, where sultans lived until the late 19th century,
much of which was unfortunately off limits to photographs.
The Treasury Rooms were so over the top opulent that they were not even horrible: jewel
encrusted everything, huge ebony and ivory thrones, piles of rubies and emeralds. The Topkapi
dagger, made famous by the movie, was a relatively minor piece. For each child born in the
palace, four cradles were constructed, each loaded with jewels. One Sultan, by the way, had 122
children.
The Harem section housed the 400 some concubines, the sultan, the sultan's mother, the black
eunuchs (from Ethiopia), the top one of which was less powerful only than the Sultan's mother
and the Grand Vizier, and the white eunuchs, who served the sultan.
I'm sure Phyllis will have some great pictures of the Harem. This was the only
unglamorous room; it's where the concubines would pick up their food, after the eunuchs
had eaten.
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