Leaving Tashkent and Uzbekistan behind, I arrived in Istanbul and made it seamlessly to where I will be spending the next week and a half.  My goal is to relax, enjoy staying in one place for an extended amount of time (do laundry!), and leisurely explore the sights of Istanbul. I am staying in the old city, near most of the significant historical attractions and will be able to wander from place to place easily on foot.  I will have to conquer the public transit system to get to a few of the more distant locales, though.  I was pleasantly surprised, as I got settled, to discover a balcony with the most amazing view of the Sea of Marma with the double benefit of always receiving a fresh, cooling breeze in the evenings.  It is a perfect place to relax, which I did for the rest of the day on Sunday.

Balcony view—AWESOME!

The next morning I was ready to start exploring and started with the most obvious target, the Blue Mosque, whose four impressive towers I can see from my balcony.  I might also note that there are several mosques near me, both active and inactive, besides the Blue Mosque and so, being perched on a hill the way I am, I can clearly hear the call to prayer from all of them.  It is a cacophony of sound, all tones and pitches, not exactly in synch (because the all seem to start at slightly different times) with various quality due to the audio the particular mosque has installed.  I suspect they are all saying the same thing but I have not yet broken the code.  Interestingly, when I was walking around in the old city, I could not hear any of them; I imaging the buildings and narrow streets wreck the acoustics.  So far the last call has been around 10:30 and the earliest at 4:39am.  (Yep, I checked.)

I got to the Blue Mosque around 9am, right when it opened because it is peak tourist season in Istanbul and the crowds are dense.  Sure enough, there were already many tour groups of all sizes, in multiple languages, gathered in groups around the plaza listening to avidly to their guide explain the history.  The mosque, built between 1609-1617, was built next to a former Byzantine hippodrome (the mosque was built where the spectator stands were located).  The plaza in front of the mosque hosts a few artifacts from earlier times;  a bronze column known as the Serpent Column was part of the hippodrome sometime around the 5th century.  It is believe to be 8 meters tall and host three serpent heads.  I can only imagine what archeological wonders lie under the plaza!

The remains of the serpent column. Easy to overlook but there is still is after millennia.

Moving forward in history, standing in the plaza is also the Obelisk of Theodosius, erected in 390AD. The obelisk, taken from Egypt by Theodosius is actually the obelisk of Thutmose III, which dates back to the 1400 BC timeframe (so I am not sure we are moving forward in history…..).  The obelisk was damaged in transport and currently is about just over half the original height.  As I stood there and stared at it, it was difficult to imagine that I was looking at over three millennia of history.

The Obelisk of Theodosius (or should I say Thutmose III?). It is a well traveled pillar and its sister pillar is in Rome. Plunders of Egypt by the conquering Romans…..

I finally turned my attention to the Blue Mosque and wondered through the outer wall surrounding the complex.  The mosque, an active mosque that can hold 10,000 people (it is huge!), is free to visit, but visitors are screened to make sure that proper etiquette is kept— no shoes, women must have their heads covered and everyone must have shoulders covered and also to the knees.  Scarves and wraps are available for use and I saw as many men wearing waist wraps (shorts!) as women inside.  The Blue Mosque gets its name from the blue tiles that dominate the decoration.  The inside is majestic with several smaller domes surrounding the main dome leading to a complex ceiling and no doubt contributing to the acoustics.  The interior décor also consisted of elaborate stained glass windows and tile work on the main columns in additional colors besides the blue that the mosque is famous for.  Unfortunately, as it is an active mosque, and practicality in function is a “thing”, the modern lighting that has been installed interfered a bit with totally absorbing the sense of scale, but nonetheless it was impressive.  The complicated dome structure was fascinating to me.  There were people all over the place inside and it was hard to get a clean picture, but in the end I just found a column to stand next to and simply gaze around.

The blue tiles that give the Blue Mosque its name. They ring the interior of the structure.

A shot of the inside of the Blue Mosque. You can see how the modern electrical both adds and detracts from the beauty. The dome design is amazing!

Another shot of the inside of the Blue Mosque, focused more on the stained glass windows.

I exited the mosque into the inner courtyard, also quite large and spent some time reading the information along two of the walls regarding the founding of Islam, its tenets, and contributions in various areas. It was all very interesting and I snapped a couple of shots of some of the placards.  Even though I have studied all of the world’s religions, it has been more as a survey, (and its been a while) so I appreciated the opportunity to refresh and learn more about this particular practice. Given the number and variety of people people that go through the mosque every year, the information is well placed!

Courtyard of the Blue Mosque.

Leaving the courtyard I exited through the outer wall and decided to walk around the mosque to see it from the outside.  Walking north, at the end of the plaza, the Hagia Sofia dominated the view but I turned away- that is an exploration for another day!  Rounding the corner  and putting the Hagia Sofia on my left, I found another beautiful plaza between the two structures along with benches that face both.  Because of the position of the sun, I was able to get a better shot of the Blue Mosque (see featured image).  Behind the mosque are some stairs that lead to an artist market (will explore today) and a parking lot.  Small shops fill the wall on the south side of the mosque.  Once I circled the whole thing, it was time to go get lost in the small side streets of the old city and see what I could discover next.

A close up of some of the dome design/structures of the Blue Mosque. Amazingly intricate!

Istanbul has been around as a settlement for thousands of years and enriched by cultures from all over the world.  Like many old cities, the streets are narrow and the buildings vary in style depending how old they are.  While much of the old city is targeted at tourists, it is possible to find alleys and areas off the beaten path.  I wandered south towards the water, walking in an aimless fashion and looking around, noticed an old brick wall, partially covered by vines, that had the look of some ancient structure.  I had no idea what I was looking at, but it looked old.  It also looked like there was some kind of construction going on, on the top of it.  I did some research after I returned home and found out that the structure was the remains of the Boukoleon palace, a Byzantine palace dating back to the 5th century, which was (supposedly) the main palace for the Byzantine court until the 11th century.  Part of the palace ruins were destroyed in 1873 to make way for a railway line but apparently the government is now working on a restoration project.  Istanbul and Rome share the same attributes:  turn a corner and run into another thousand(s) year old building!

If you are not paying attention it is possible to walk right by and not notice the ancient walls. This is part of the ruins of the Boukoleon Palace.

Continuing my stroll towards the water, I stumbled on the Little Hagia Sophia Mosque (please forgive me for not writing in Turkish!) which had been, since the 4th century the Church of St. Sergius and Bacchus, before being converted to a mosque in the 1500’s by the Ottomans.  The church has a lot of history (you can look it up if you are interested) and the design is similar to that of Hagia Sophia- spoiler alert for me… I could see (and hear) the mosque from my balcony so I was delighted to stumble upon it and find out what it was.  The mosque is kind of tucked away at the southern most point of the old city and definitely out of the way of the main tourist routes so there were only a half dozen people there when I entered.  Quite frankly I found this mosque much more welcoming and “present” as a holy space than I had the Blue Mosque, no doubt a result of the crowds, but perhaps because two different religions had utilized the very same spot.  It was simple, elegant and beautiful inside and I lingered a bit.  There was a small courtyard and opposite the mosque itself was a structure that had been used as a madrasa, but currently hosted artisans.  I enjoyed the quite out of the way spot!

Little Hagia Sophia Mosque currently. Used to be a Byzantine church. Tucked away and easy to miss but beautiful.

And the inside… simple and elegant. Felt very peaceful.

As it was nearing noon, when I left the mosque and continued my stroll, I started checking out menus of the many cafes that I passed.  All and menus out and every time I stopped the hostess, host or proprietor was there to chat and entice me into their venue- in a friendly non-pushy manner.  Some asked where I was from and we struck up a short conversation, many seem surprised I was from the U.S. I guess they do not get as many Americans here compared to Russians and Europeans because of the distance. Interestingly many of them assumed I was looking for breakfast and I asked one young woman, hostess at a very cute café I will have to return to, why I am constantly being asked about breakfast. She replied that people sleep late and besides, like to eat breakfast all day!   I eventually settled on one of the cafes I discovered at the intersection of five streets with a fountain in the middle.  I did not sit down to eat until 1pm, but yet was one of the few people eating lunch so early.  (I have noted that there is a lot of activity at night, with prime dinner time around 9pm or so.)

The streets were very narrow. These three cars were parked. Not sure what happens if the middle car wants to leave…

After lunch I decide to explore the Grand Bazaar but I am going to save that for another post because it was just that overwhelming.  Exiting the bazaar, I ran into another historical mosque, near the Istanbul University, the Sultan Bayezid II mosque, built in the early 1500s, another Ottoman construction.  It was built near the Forum of Theodosius and is the oldest imperial complex in Istanbul. It is fairly well preserved in its original form, although restoration has been done, and is still an active mosque. In its day it was a huge complex with a madras, caravanserai, and bathhouse.  Like the Little Hagia Sophia mosque, the inside was simple and elegant and very peaceful. There were a handful of people praying so I did not take any pictures.  The courtyard was restful and I sat for a moment and people watched, interested in the activities of locals coming to pray and tourists coming to gawk.

Sultan Beyezid II Mosque.

Courtyard of Sultan Bayezid II Mosque.

Leaving the mosque it was time to head back home as I had some meetings to attend (virtually, clearly) but I did find a gelato stand on the way which was a great way to end my first day of exploration.