Istanbul - Aya Sofya

If you go to Istanbul and have to only see one site, it is without doubt Aya Sofya (also known as Hagia Sophia in Greek). This was my main ancient site that I wanted to see in the whole of Turkey.

This is a wonderful view of Aya Sofya along the tree-lined road from the Hippodrome. The tourist queue to get into Aya Sofya can sometimes stretch to almost this point, it's very popular!

The size of the building and amount of bricks used to build Aya Sofya is staggering. An interesting note, there has been a church here since the year 360 AD.

Once in, you enter the first hallway, which is massive in itself....

You then enter the main dome area dwarfs everything.

The dome is an amazing 55.6 metres (182 ft) above the floor.

Constantinople fell to the muslims, Sultan Mehmed, in 1453. Aya Sofya was then converted from a church to a mosque. Today it's a fantastic museum.

The Sultan could attend prayers in his lace box, without being seen by the public.

The apse mosaic of the virgin mother and child.

Lots of wonderful stained glass windows.

The main dome has fantastic artwork, a lot of it restored.

The central muslim artwork.

Strange looking angels at the corner points.

The tomb of Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice, who in 1204 diverted the crusaders to attack Constantinople, a fellow Christian city, purely for greed. A disgraceful event, but tradition says that after the conquest of the city by muslims in 1453, his tomb was opened end his bones were thrown to the dogs!

The Omphalion, inlaid marble where Byzantine emperors sat on their throne, while being crowned.

Ancient Christian symbols on the ceiling, showing through the over laid muslim designs.

Marble that looks like some Aboriginal design. Many relics and artworks were stolen by the crusaders in 1204 and others removed after the 1453 conquest.

Hallways surround the main dome area.

Some wonderful light streaming onto an interesting (modern looking) design.

The ramp entrance lead to the upper level, it becomes quite narrow and claustrophobic, as it twists it's way up.

The view from the upper level is wonderful.

The upper level hallway.

The large green medallions with the names of God, Mohammed and the early calipahs, were erected in the 19th century.

The chandeliers look great.

People are dwarfed by the size of the church.

Tourists admiring the famous Deesis Mosaic (The Last Judgement).

Jesus in the centre, Mary on the left and John the baptist on the right.

 

The remains of a truly fantastic mosaic from the 14th century.

Beautiful colours, similar to the ones in our house.

The view through the upper floor widows looks pretty good too.

Originally the church would have had oil lamps, but the chandeliers were Ottoman additions.

Amongst the fine carvings and artwork, a lone pigeon sits!

The Emperor Comnenus and Empress Eirene mosaic.

The Empress Zoe mosaic. The funny story here is that, she outlived most of her husbands and had a new face put on the mosaic every time one died and she married a new one, well except for the last one who outlived her.

Multiple beautifully coloured arches.

Solid doors, but these were no match for the muslim conquest in 1453.

'In 1453 Sultan Mehmed laid siege to Constantinople, driven in part by a desire to convert the city to Islam. The Sultan promised his troops three days of unbridled pillage if the city fell, after which he would claim its contents himself. The Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage, becoming its focal point as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures of the city. Shortly after the city’s defenses collapsed, pillagers made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors. Throughout the siege the Holy Liturgy and Prayer of the Hours were performed at the Hagia Sophia, and the church formed a refuge for many of those who were unable to contribute to the city’s defense. Trapped in the church, congregants and refugees became booty to be divided amongst the invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, and occupants enslaved or slaughtered; a few of the elderly and infirm were killed, and the remainder chained. Priests continued to perform Christian rites until stopped by the invaders. When the Sultan and his cohort entered the church he insisted it should be at once transformed into a mosque.'

The fountain for ritual washing before entering the mosque.

An interesting piece of artwork outside, that looks more South American.

It's been a long day and I'm tired and need a strong Turkish coffee to keep me going.

We had a rooftop dinner to end the day. I love this photo, as in the glass reflection you can see the outline of Aya Sofya, where we had a day I shall always remember.

Istanbul - A Byzantine Walk

We had two days before our birding tour began, so like all the bygone travellers of old to Instanbul, we had to try and see the main classical ancient sites. A big challenge as almost every corner has some wonderful historical relic.

We decided to start near the centre of old Istanbul and work our way outwards, but I also wanted to see the the legendary massive sea walls of Constantinople, so it was going to be quite a walk.

Supplies are of course needed for a long walk. There are lots of these sweet shops full of different types of Baklava and Turkish Delights.

Near the ferry docks and Spice Bazaar, looks old but it's called the New Mosque.

Our first must-see site, the Hippodrome. An ancient chariot racing arena built by Emperor Septimius Severus around 200 AD. You can see what's left of the amazing green Serpent Column in front of the obelisk.

The Obelisk of Thutmose III brought from Egypt in 390 AD by Emperor Theodosius. The obelisk is in fantastic condition, seeing it's 3500 years old!

It rests on this base with carvings of Emperor Theodosius and his court. This is the top most segment of the obelisk, as it was cut in 3 pieces before being brought to Constantinople.

The ancient Egyptian carving are in good condition.

What the Hippodrome may have looked like, from the website Byzantium 1200.

You can see an obelisk (there were 2, a Walled Obelisk and Thutmose's) and 3-headed serpent column.

Next stop, was the small but wonderful church of Little Hagia Sophia.

Beautiful restored artwork at this important Byzantine site.

Nicely carved doors with brass locks.

Beautiful inside as well.

Wonderful light.

You can buy almost anything in the huge bazaars of Istanbul.

The beautiful Aya Sofya dominates the area.

What remains of the beautiful Palace of Bucoleon in the city sea walls, built around the 5th century. This was a Byzantine site I wanted to visit, again after having read Norwich's history books.

A disgraceful event occurred at Constantinople in 1204, with crusaders heading to the middle east, instead attacking and sacking the city of their fellow Christians. An interesting piece of history about this site states;

In the 1204 sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, Bucoleon was taken by Boniface of Montferrat who: "rode all along the shore to the palace of Bucoleon, and when he arrived there it surrendered, on condition that the lives of all therein should be spared. At Bucoleon were found the larger number of the great ladies who had fled to the castle, for there were found the sister of the King of France, who had been empress, and the sister of the King of Hungary, who had also been empress, and other ladies very many. Of the treasure that was found in that palace I cannot well speak, for there was so much that it was beyond end or counting." (Villehardouin)

For a 360 degree look at the remains of the palace click here.

How the palace may have looked, from the website Byzantium 1200.

Two lions guarded the seaward doorway.

One of the lions, now at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Some people have their homes in the old city walls, many of the older homes are now deserted.

Narrow roads allow residents to get through the old city walls.

A lot of the homes in old Istanbul were made of wood, which resulted in fires often destroying large portions of the city, when fire-fighting was almost non-existent. It's good to see that many resident are now restoring the old wooden homes, some to become tourist hotels.

The orignal train station in Istanbul for the famous Orient Express. I had to take a picture here!

One of the most amazing sites below Istanbul is the Basilica Cistern. It can hold 80 000 cubic metres of water and has 336 marble columns, 9 metres high!

Amazing brick work on the ceiling to support the city above.

A surreal place with big Carp swimming in the dark underground waters.

Dark and quiet (well first thing in the morning before loads of tourists arrive).

No this photo isn't upside down. It's one of the 2 famous Gorgon heads on the base of 2 columns in the cistern.

This one is sideways.

No one is really sure why they are here, as the other columns don't have anything like this.

Some columns do have interesting carvings.

The cistern was a place I didn't know about, but turned out to be one of the most interesting sites in Istanbul (or under it).