Today I visited the Topkapi Palace which is adjacent to the Hagia Sophia and perched on the top of the “first hill” of Istanbul. The palace, built by the Ottomans after the conquest of Constantinople, stands at the highest point on the hill and is where the Byzantine acropolis was located when the Greeks held the city. The architecture is classic Ottoman style, laid out in four courtyards and consisted of a private area for the sultan, the harem for the family and surrounding that core, the administrative and governing areas. The first courtyard is open to the public and has an extensive garden, to access the second courtyard and beyond you need a ticket.  I was able to get a picture of it from the water during one of my water taxi rides and the best way to describe it is- sprawling. Some of the walls surrounding it still exist (and some date back to Byzantine times!). I decided to sign up for a tour, knowing that the grounds were huge and the palace has a long history because I did not want to miss anything important.  I selected the morning tour, which started right when the site opens at 9am, as I wanted to avoid both the heat and the crowds. Our tour started in the second courtyard.

The entrances to the receiving area in the 2nd courtyard.

This was not in the receiving area, but you have to remember to always look up! The ceilings were all very ornate and painted.

The first rooms we visiting were for receiving supplicants and visitors who wanted to meet with the Sultan.  Interestingly there was a latticed window above the seat where the secretary sat which was for the Sultan to observe the proceedings.  However, because it was latticed, no one could know where he was back there listening or not; he apparently had ways to move about the palace grounds unobserved.  All the rooms we saw had lavish and colorful tiles and decorative motifs.  I think what impressed me the most were the doors.  The doors were made from mother of pearl and tortoise shell— no wood was used in the decoration.  They were beautiful.  We passed into the throne room taking the same path former supplicants would have taken.  Another interesting fact was that there were no fireplaces in some of the rooms.  Instead braziers were used for heat.  I do not know how effective those were, but I began to understand the utility of some of the heavy robes I saw in the costume museum part of the palace.

Imperial Council throne room, second courtyard. Meant to be imposing….

We visited the harem section next.  The harem, which was not just for the concubines, but also for the Sultan’s family and children, was guarded by eunuchs. There were two tiers of eunuchs. The black eunuchs, from North Africa, who were Muslims since birth were in charge of external security (never went into the harem) and the top tier.  The white eunuchs, who could have come from anywhere, including Christian orphans, were taken into the harem when young and educated for 7-8 years to learn their duties.  They were in the harem proper and served the family.  When food was brought from the kitchens (more on that later) it was handed over to the black eunuchs, who handed it over to the white eunuchs who served it.  There was a lot of protocol in everything!

Entering the harem. Note the darker section of road. This is a rock mosaic and is the road the Sultan rode his horse on to announce his visit.

Harem dorm. Top floor was for the “favored ones”. Bottom floor for the students. Middle floor for everyone else. Queen Mother had her own suite of rooms.

Our tour guide had a lot to say about the harem and how it operated. The one in charge was the Queen Mother (mother of the Sultan).  The first wife was the person who had given birth to the eldest son, and thus in the running to be the next Queen Mother.  Those who the Sultan liked, but who had not given birth to any children, were called “favored ones”.  Then there was the rest of the crowd. If the path to power lie in being the mother of the eldest son, you can imagine the intrigue that occurred when there were multiple sons by different women, always aimed at discrediting whomever the eldest son was at the moment.  The intrigue was so bad that the Queen Mother had a bathing area that had a golden fence around it so no one could get near her while she was vulnerable. (The Sultan had one too, in his bathing area).  The girls introduced into the harem were also educated for 7-8 years and the Sultan provided a dowry for them should they (eventually) marry.  BUT no one ever left the confines of the harem.  If the court moved to a different location, the people in the harem who went along simply moved into the harem in the new palace; no shopping, no strolls out of the walls, no trips anywhere.  It was a cage, even though a fairly gilded one.  Yikes!

This is a pair of shoes that were worn in the bath (so as not to get clean feet wet with dirty water). Other pairs were not so high. Pretty sure I could not walk in these!

The harem had a small kitchen for serving snacks to the Sultan when he was visiting, tons of baths (cleanliness is a very important tenant of Islam), and even a medical area for births.  The Sultan arrived to the harem via horseback along a specially decorated path, which apparently was designed to carry the sound of the horseshoes so that the girls knew he was coming. It was the Queen Mother’s job to make sure whomever was selected was appropriately prepared.  Different Sultans had different numbers of women sequestered in the harem. The low was 20 and the highest was 200.  There was more that our tour guide shared, it was fascinating in an alien lifestyle kind of way.

The golden fence that protected the Queen Mother when she bathed. Sultan had one too.

Leaving the harem we spent some time walking through several of the displays that are scattered around the grounds in some of the old buildings.  In one display were old clocks, many gifts, but some made from Ottoman artisans (knowing the exact time is an important factor in the daily calls to prayer). Another exhibit was textiles, displaying some of the robes and costumes from various Sultans. There was a building that contained examples of different types of calligraphy.  As Islam does not allow icons, calligraphy was turned into an art style and used in the decorative arts as well as for practical purposes (communication).  A popular museum was the Treasury, which was extensive and had innumerable bejeweled items of various sorts. It also had the huge 86 carat Spoonmaker’s diamond.  There were some huge gold candleholders bigger than I am and set with diamonds as well and lots of other dazzling stuff which I am not going to enumerate.  Clearly the Ottomans were wealthy.  The final museum, which we toured on our own, was the museum of the sacred artifacts (had to put a scarf on to enter).  In this building are housed relics from the Prophet Mohammed (swords, lock of beard hair, cloak, footprint etc) and some artifacts from earlier prophets as well.  In one corner of the building there is someone sitting and chanting the Koran 24/7.

Need any jeweled pitchers? Now you know where to come. Amazing artistry!

this is a special occasion robe. In gold thread (and a couple of other colors) someone embroideried verses of the Koran that were related to whatever the occasion was. It could be worn only once and had to be burned to destroy it (because of the Koranic verses). This one was never worn, which is why it still exists.

Janissary guards (real?-not sure) guard the entrance to the third courtyard and beyond which are private to the Sultan. There is another throne room (there were several different buildings and pavilions which housed thrones, so I guess court was wherever the Sultan felt like it that day).  We also walked through the Sultan’s private quarters and bath house. The balconies off of the back of the fourth courtyard provided wonderful views across to the Galata or “new city” area.  Multiple pavilions dotted the area in the fourth courtyard, including one that I was delighted to see had been a library- somewhere in Istanbul there must be an incredible collection of historical books and scrolls!

Janissary standing guard at the gate to third courtyard. There is another one on the other side of the gate, but there were too many people jumping in to get their picture taken with the guards to get a good shot of both.

At the end of the formal tour, I doubled back to the second courtyard to checkout the kitchens, which took up the length of one side of the rectangular area.  The kitchens had to provide daily meals for all of the palace occupants, which ranged anywhere from 4000 to 10,000, people depending on the era, and were highly organized according to the displays I read.  The logistics boggle my mind- planning the menus, getting the supplies, managing the inventory, breaking down the actual work of cooking and baking, then delivering the food to the whole palace— wow!

Overall, between the tour and roaming around on my own, I spent about 4.5 hours at the palace. As I was leaving the afternoon tours were arriving and it looked like it was going to be a bit more crowded; I cannot imagine what it looks like in high tourist season!

Library pavilion in the fourth courtyard.

There were doors like this al over the palace— mother of pearl and tortoiseshell. Amazing!

An alternate throne room, in a pavilion in the fourth courtyard, for holding court.