Istanbul’s must-sees
Continental drift ... the Bosphorus and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.
Explore a little-known palace or take an early morning boat trip on the Bospherus with our guide to the essential Istanbul
The Süleymaniye mosque
The ultimate architectural experience was designed for Süleyman the Magnificent. This wonderful Friday mosque works only if you go in by the front door, not the side door, which is what everyone is encouraged to do. Sinan, the great 16th-century architect, was the absolute master of the framed vista: the modest outer gate leads to the gigantic but austere courtyard gate, which leads to a courtyard about to be submerged in a vast cascade of domes, which leads to a huge wall of grey stone, pierced by windows with miniature tesserae of stained glass, veiled by a curtain of lantern ropes. Fortify yourself first with a bowl of beans at Kanaat (Selmanipak Caddesi, 9). Follow it with a glass of boza (fermented millet) in nearby Vefa Bozacısı (Katip Çelebi Caddesi 104), an impeccable 1920s café with mirrored columns.
Prof Sıddık Sami Onar Caddesi.
Sokullu Mehmet Pasha mosque
Sinan again designed this mosque, just below the Hippodrome. Enter by the front portal, up a marvellous staircase with a pointed arch framing the dome of the ablution fountain, in turn framed by the domes of the mosque. It's even better when it rains and the lead is gleaming. This is a much more intimate affair than Süleymaniye, built not for the Grand Vizier but his wife, Süleyman's granddaughter. Just around the corner stands Küçük Ayasofya, a stunning Byzantine church, now converted into a mosque.
Sehit Çesmesi Sok, Sultanahmet.
Yıldız Palace
The Sale Kiosk of the Yıldız Palace is perhaps Europe's most astonishing Victorian guesthouse. And nobody can stay there, unless – like Kaiser Wilhelm II, Churchill or De Gaulle, for whom the state bed was specially extended – they are invited. But it is open for the public to visit. It is an attractive if rather steep walk through woods to get there. Inside, tiptoe through room after glorious room until you emerge in the ballroom, with the second largest carpet in the world reflected in a long wall of art nouveau mirrors.
Barbaros Bulvarı Yıldız Park, Besiktas.
Walk in the hills
Take a bus from Sariyer, the city's northernmost district, to the hilltop above. Get out a few bends after passing Koç university into unspoilt countryside where there are migrating birds in spring and autumn. If you're feeling energetic you can walk down the hill all the way back to Sariyer.
Princes' Islands
A picnic on Heybeliada or Büyükada, two of the Princes' Islands, close to Istanbul in the sea of Marmara, makes a serene break from the busy city. On Heybeliada, the recommended spot is a small chapel on the hills above the large naval academy in the middle of the island. The end of the island is like a prow of a huge leafy ship. The other spot is Varan on Büyükada, or the best beach, at Eskibag Halka Acik Plaji. This summer a museum dedicated to the islands' heritage will open.
Catch the IDO ferry from the Kabatas (2.80TL each way, 2 hours).
Boat ride
Take a taxi to the Sarıyer ferry dock on the Bosphorus and catch the 7am commuter boat from Sariyer into the city. (You could also pick it up in Yeniköy or Istiniye, if you sleep in.) The boat is almost deserted and the Bosphorus lovely in the morning light.
Art and nightlife
Don't miss Beyoglu – Istanbul's turn-of-the-century downtown – where art galleries jostle with bars and meyhanes (traditional restaurants). Rodeo Gallery (Lüleci Hendek Caddesi 12, +90 212 2935800), and its neighbour DEPO (same address) are unmissable, as is Banu Cennetoglu's space, BAS (Nuri Ziya Sokak 7). Meanwhile the Pera museum (Mesrutiyet Caddesi 65) offers a fantastic collection of orientalist art as well as excellent temporary exhibitions and film seasons. Sidestep the expensive bars and quench your thirst at the lovably eccentric Hotel Buyuk Londra's terrace bar (Mesrutiyet Caddesi 53) or the new Marmara Pera Hotel before descending into the melee of Asmalımescit for fish and rakı at Refik (Sofyalı Sokak 10) or Yakup 2 (Asmalı Mescit Sokak 35).
Day trip
Close to Istanbul, the hauntingly beautiful city of Edirne is Turkey's true gateway to Europe and the Balkans. Home to Sinan's masterpiece, the Selimiye mosque, as well as stunning examples of Ottoman architecture, it remains well off the beaten track. The Eski mosque and Ottoman bridges are astonishing. If possible, find a way into the neglected Murad II mosque, with its unique, Chinese-inspired tiles.
John Scott, editor, and Thomas Roueché, contributing editor, of Turkey's English language Cornucopia Magazine
The Guardian, Saturday 10 April 2010
Discovering Byzantine traces in İstanbul
What is this life if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.
These are the opening lines of a poem by William Henry Davies in which he bemoans that we miss so many beautiful things in life because we are rushing.
The Chora Museum is one of the numerous Byzantine sites in İstanbul Robert van den Graven recounts in his book.
Crowds and rush describe Istanbul. You only need to be on one of the mighty suspension bridges spanning the Bosporus during rush hour to see the crowds of people trying to get from one continent to another, often sounding their horns in frustration at the task. Or witness the mighty tide of pedestrians pouring over Galata Bridge to get to work.
The city is full of millions of people who are all in a rush to get the next job done, get to the next appointment or just to get home after an extremely tiring day amongst all the crowds.
We are all so busy that often day after day we pass by familiar landmarks neglecting to look up and admire their beauty. Many passengers on the ferry home to Asia close their eyes and rest after a hard day and miss the view of the İstanbul skyline, which has thrilled and amazed travelers for nearly two millennia.
In our haste to catch the train, to purchase our jeton before the ferry departs, not to miss the bus we race past sites that have been silent witnesses to the journeys of centuries of İstanbulites.
Not only do we not know what hidden treasures lie under our feet, we don’t have time to look up at ancient buildings and walls or peer over fences to see old ruins or explore down hidden alleyways.
In his self-guided tour to Byzantine İstanbul, Robert van den Graven encourages us to take time to explore the amazing history of the city that is easily accessible today to the one who takes the time to find it.
Graven introduces us to İstanbul’s glorious history as Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire for over 1,000 years. The book says of itself, “From the awe-inspiring domed nave of Hagia Sophia to the majestic remains of the fifth-century Theodosian walls, from the exquisite mosaics of Chora Church to dungeons and underground cisterns, from Greek Orthodox churches to sacred springs, the ten walking routes in this book take visitors through every layer of İstanbul’s rich Byzantine past.”
The name Byzantines was invented by 19th century historians. The Byzantines themselves thought of themselves as Romans, citizens of the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. At heart, though, they were Greeks, as they spoke this language, and its learning influenced the church and state. For example, they taught Platonic philosophy.
Some of the sites that van Graven takes us to are well known and open to the public: the Hagia Sophia, the Hippodrome, Çemberlitaş (the Burnt Column), Yerebatan Sarayı (the Underground Cisterns), the Mosaic Museum, Galata Tower, Kariye (Chora Museum) and the walls of the city. Even with the advent of the Müze Kartı, which gives unlimited annual access to museums for a fixed price, the majority of residents of İstanbul have not visited all of these places.
But, even if you have visited them, you may well have missed some of the excellent detail included in this guide. For example, few of us exploring the Hippodrome have gone down a side street at its seeming end and crossed a school playground to see the drop down towards the shore, which was the old wall at the end of the Hippodrome enclosing the spectators’ area. Also it is rare to find a guide that explains the story of each of the frescos of the Chora Museum, including the gallery that shows the life of the Virgin Mary; even the museum doesn’t have this available.
Here is a quick overview of what is covered in each of the walks:
1: Where else could you start but with the Hagia Sophia? Constantinople was the biggest metropolis in the world, and the Hagia Sophia was one of the greatest buildings in the world. The Slavs who came here were so awestruck that “they knew not whether they were in heaven or on earth.”
2: Coming out of the Hagia Sophia you enter the political powerhouse of Constantinople. With the Hagia Sophia, the emperor’s palace and the Hippodrome in the vicinity, this was where the will of the emperor, God and the people could be heard.
3: In Cankurtaran “you find little bits of Byzantine history wherever you go,” whether this is the basement under a carpet shop or going up a few flights of stairs in a building to peer down at excavations that are hidden from sight at street level.
4: The “Mese” was the Byzantine Fifth Avenue, with smart shops and restaurants.
5: Around the Grand Bazaar life seems not to have changed for generations. Twelfth century resident John Tzetzes complained that “workers kept digging up the road so it was impossible for him to get in or out.”
6 &7: Take a walk and train ride around the sea walls. This section has been updated to include the amazing finds during the Marmaray project.
8: Later Byzantine palaces, churches and dungeons! This section contains a transition to the modern day with the Palace of Blachernae over which the Ottoman flag first flew when the city of Constantinople fell to Mehmet the Conqueror.
9: The old districts of Fener and Balat by the Golden Horn contain many treasures that are unknown to those of us who race past on the coast road. Turning aside you can explore such beauties as St. Mary of the Mongols, the Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos (Fethiye Camii), the Church of St. Theodosia (Gül Camii) and the Church of the Pantokrator (Zeyrek Camii). Many of these sites have amazing significance relating to the Ottoman conquest of the city, for some of the fiercest fighting in 1453 was along this stretch of the walls. Gül Camii (Rose Mosque) in fact gets its name from this time. May 29 was St. Theodosia’s feast day. On the day the city was to fall, a large congregation gathered here to pray for deliverance from the hands of the Turks. The church was decorated with garlands of roses for the occasion, and when the Ottoman soldiers stormed in they found these still in place -– hence the Turkish name.
10: It is not just the old city that has Byzantine remains. Galata was called “Sycae” -- the fig orchard -- in Byzantine times, but apart from the tower it does have other buildings and remains. So, too, have various villages along the Bosporus -- for example, Kuruçeşme -- right up to the amazing Byzantine keep above the village of Anadolu Kavağı at the entrance to the Black Sea on the Asian side.
What if you can’t come to İstanbul to explore the back streets, push open gateways, walk down steps to see basement remains and lift up your head to gaze up at tall columns? Van den Graven recommends a fascinating Web site www.byzantium1200.com, which has reconstructions of what the city would have looked like in A.D. 1200. As well as general views of the city, this intriguing site contains pictures of what 66 different buildings would have looked like. Using this site in conjunction with the photos in van den Graven’s book gives you an amazing armchair tour of the old city.
“Byzantine Istanbul,” by Robert van den Graven, published by Çitlembik
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-206326-110-discovering-byzantine-traces-in-istanbul.html
The Hippodrome of Constantinople | Sultanahmet Square of Istanbul
Blue Mosque and Obelisk in Sultanahmet Istanbul Old City
Seeing people enjoying their Sunday afternoons on the calm lush green lawns of Hippodrome, it is quite difficult to believe that this is the same place where numerous royal celebrations, chariot races and deadly massacres took place many centuries ago.
And when the park is adorned with white lights during the month of Ramadan along with elephant rides arranged for kids, all the signs of its complex past are completely wiped away. It has been aptly named as ‘At Meydani’ or ‘Sultanahmet Meydani’ (Horse Square or Horse Grounds in Turkish) due to its function in the Ottoman period.
The word hippodrome owes its name to the two Greek words namely ‘hippos’ meaning horse and ‘dromos’ meaning racing path or track. The face that the favorite pastimes of the people in the ancient times were chariot racing and horse racing made hippodromes a peculiar and prominent feature of almost all the Greek cities in the Byzantine, Roman and even the Hellenistic periods.
The first Hippodrome was built in the Greek times when the city was called Byzantium. The Hippodrome was the heart and soul of not just the political life but also the sporting life of Constantinople (the city of Constantine the Great). It was a Greek stadium that was a venue for several horse races as well as polo games on the track built by Septimus Severus between 203 A.D. and 324 A.D.
Constantine the Great enlarged and renovated the Hippodrome that was modeled on Rome’s the Circus Maximus. He used several stone walls and vaults for providing support. The Hippodrome continued to be a scene of riots and games in the 500 years of the history of Ottoman Empire.
The only difference between the two hippodromes was that just four chariot races could be organized at a time in the Roman Circus while the Greek hippodrome had the capacity to hold more than ten races at a time as the size of the latter was larger than the former, measuring nearly 400 feet.
The Hippodrome was nearly 427 feet wide and 1476 feet long. It had 40 rows of seats and a capacity of accommodating nearly 100,000 supporters. Due to political rivalries between the various merchant guilds including Greens, Blues, Reds and Whites. The result was the Nika Revolt in 532 A.D. which eventually caused extensive damage to the Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) Church and the imperial palace.
More than 30,000 people were massacred as a punishment on the orders of Justinian the Great after he regained power. Later on during the Fourth Crusade, the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453. These Turks had simply no interest in horse racing and did not bother to do any restoration efforts for the Hippodrome. Instead, they started using the Hippodrome as a marble quarry and the Hippodrome was forgotten slowly and gradually.
During its peak glory, the Hippodrome was adorned with a huge collection of historical monuments and trophies that were either made by skilled artisans of the city or brought from different corners of the Ottoman Empire.
The Column of Constantine or the Walled Obelisk (Magnetic Column/the Colossus) is located at the southern corner of the park. It was built on the instructions of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century and was decorated with brass plates and bronze plaques. However, these embellishments were melted to mint coins in 1204 by the Crusaders.
Situated at a short distance away is the Serpentine Column originally erected in front of Delphi’s Temple of Apollo by Greek city-states to celebrate their win over the Persians. However, the column is only 25 percent of its original size of 8 m. the column is made of bronze and has three intertwined serpents. Earlier, it had a gold bowl that was provided support by heads of three gold serpents. However, the heads were believed to have been lost until one head was rediscovered during the restoration work of the famous Ayasofya.
Another outstanding monument of architecture in the city happens to be the Obelisk of Tutmosis III. The obelisk weighing 60 tons was brought by Emperor Theodosius I. it is made of granite with hieroglyphics depicting the glory of the god Horus and the pharaoh. It was brought to the square in 390 A.D. nearly two millennia after the time of its carving. Almost two-third of the obelisk was damaged or lost during transportation. At present, the obelisk is nearly 65 feet high.
In the north corner of the Hippodrome lays the Fountain of Willhelm II, also known as Alman Cesmesi. It was built originally in Germany and later on assembled in the city of Istanbul to mark the emperor’s city visit in 1895. One can find the signatures of Sultan Abdulhamid and the German monarch in golden mosaics inside the dome of the fountain.
The statue of four bronze horses happened to be the crowning glory of the Hippodrome. However, it was looted and taken away to the Basilica of St. Marco in Venice during the lootings in the city in the Fourth Crusade in 1204.
Another exquisite monument of historical architecture located in the northern corner of the Hippodrome is the Million Stone. Modeled on the Millaiarium Aureum, it was erected by Julius Caesar in Rome.
The Hippodrome was a favorite venue for numerous important and lavish occasions including circumcision ceremony of Sultan Ahmed III’s sons which spanned for days together.
