Although we went to The Blue Mosque first, it is more than 1000 years younger than the Hagia Sophia, which lays right across the promenade from its newer counterpart. The Blue Mosque was Sultan Ahmed's response to the Hagia Sophia, although however impressive its dome, it can't compare to the advanced technology and design of the Hagia Sophia's. The Blue Mosque is officially named Sultan Ahmed, but is nicknamed for its incredible blue tiles. My pictures of the interior don't come close to giving it justice.
We had to remove our shoes and cover our heads, legs, and arms before entering. I've never been in a public place with dozens of other shoeless people. More importantly, perhaps, I had never been inside a Mosque. In the Muslim religion, they don't approve of idols, so there are absolutely no faces or pictures (quite a contrast to Catholic churches) and instead intricately decorated tiles adorn the interior. I present to you The Blue Mosque:
The Hagia Sophia, a Catholic church turned mosque turned museum, has a striking interior. The current structure was built in 562 A.D. as a Catholic cathedral. It was a mosque from 1453 until 1934, when it was secularized and made into a museum. The fascinating thing about the Hagia Sophia is that in its museum form, it has been made to show elements from both its Catholic and Muslim states.
You'll notice a mosaic of Mary and Jesus alongside a large sign of arabic script. Remember that mosques never have idols, or faces in their places of worship, so it was fascinating to see the contrast.
Here there is a design that had previously covered a cross. They've done an amazing job of restoring the Catholic elements while retaining the Muslim ones.
The view out one of Hagia Sophia's windows...you can see the Blue Mosque in the background. That's how close they are to one another!
Now I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. I didn't even know what a cistern was until we entered this one. It was built in the 6th century under Emperor Justinian and is simply used to store water, like a giant underground well. The ambiance was incredible, you felt like you were in a Tomb Raider or National Treasure or the Da Vinci Code. It was dark, the columns were lit up red, and water was dripping everywhere. Apparently its been the set of several movie scenes, including the recent film The International. I present the Basilica Cistern:
Now I know what you're thinking, but no, I do not have a spelling problem. I purposefully had the title of this post include "Meats" because for lunch we ate just that. We went to this Kufte house across from the Mosques to eat the popular Turkish meatballs, or kufte. They're quite fatty and oh so yummy.
Our final stop on our whirlwind museum tour was the Topkapi Palace. This included the Harem, where the Sultan lived/got busy with his Concubines. It was pretty funny to imagine such a scene of debauchery. The amazing thing though were all the tiles and mosaics. In the rest of the museum we got to see potentially fake artifacts (Moses's staff, one too many examples of Mohammad's beard) but also some really amazing artifacts in the treasury (diamond encrusted candlesticks as tall as me, an ancient emerald dagger, an 85 carrot diamond, a large jewelery box filled with loose emeralds). There were also incredible views of the city from various points on the grounds.
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