Back in Time in the Hagia Sophia

The Hagia Sophia is an interesting building. While the Blue Mosque is still an operating mosque (we had to leave before noon prayers), the Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum by Ataturk shortly after independence. The building was controversial: first built as the third Byzantine cathedral on the site, the building was turned into a mosque when the Ottomans took the city of Constantinople. They painted over the mosaics of Jesus and the saints (no images in the mosque) and installed huge calligraphy panels with the names of Allah, Muhammad, and a number of early caliphates. Recently they have uncovered some of the mosaics intact. Millions of tiny little pieces meticulously arranged! Hopefully this post will act as a little "virtual tour" of the Hagia Sophia!

Main part of the "museum" (church/mosque). The huge caligraphy panels came with the Ottomans.

 

 

Dome of the Hagia Sophia, with seraphim in the corners.

The face of one was just recently restored--no images in a mosque, so they painted over the faces but allowed the forms with wings to remain.

Bad picture, but you get the comparison.

Check out the detailed carving--I know, I sound like my dad.

View from the upper balcony. The rings of light are chandelier-type lighting similar to what was in the Blue Mosque, but on a smaller scale.

Mosaics! The restored ones are mostly on the upper floor.

SO MANY LITTLE PIECES.

This is a black-background mosaic--pretty rare.

This picture shows the different layers--at the top is the Ottoman-era plaster painted with floral designs, with the mosaics from the church underneath.

This picture seems random, but if you look closely the column is not straight at all! Nothing in the Hagia Sophia is symmetrical. Because of the dome and other structural stuff, the building leans and sags. They put up flying butresses to keep the walls from shifting. On the plus side, our tour guide says it's virtually earthquake-proof.

Detail of the mosaic pictured above. Artists often showed rulers of the city (one of these guys is Justinius, an emperor) with Jesus or Mary. He's gifting the Hagia Sophia to Mary (left guy). I think it's cool that art can actually be very political.

So I hope I haven't overloaded you with pictures, but that's really the best way for me to express to you what these sights are like. Next stop will be Topkapi Palace!

Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque)

Our final day in glorious Istanbul started bright and early in the middle of another snow fury (not storm, because it wasn't sticking or heavy, it was just windy). Our first stop was the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet. You can see this mosque from most of the places we visited in the city (and from our hotel across the harbor!). The inside is beautiful! The detail is astonishing. Since Islam doesn't use images of people in mosques, the motifs of choice are flowers, calligraphy, and verses from the Koran. I took so many pictures!

Blue Mosque, with a dusting of snow. Who woulda thought?

Courtyard of the mosque. We had to take our shoes off and wear these plastic feet coverings, probably more to protect our feet in the wet and snow than anything else.

This is the floor pattern in the courtyard. Random, but I thought the way they use geometry is pretty cool.

Me in the Blue Mosque!

Better view of the main area, which is reserved for praying. If you visit they have part of the floor blocked off for visitors, but the rest is reserved for people who want to pray there.

I took so many pictures of details--verses from the Koran, ceiling decorations and tiles are all in this one picture!

Again, I liked the details, like the carved section on the balcony and the pointing of the arches.

I decided to put the Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace as two separate posts, otherwise this would turn into a super-post!

The Chronicles of Istanbul: Day 3

Our third day in Istanbul was a disappointment, to say the least. We woke up to ferocious winds and -what?!-SNOW! We got on a bus to go to the Fener-Balat area. This is the historically Greek and Jewish area, but now it's mostly internally displaced persons from other areas of Turkey. This change is partially due to changing demographics--a lot of Greeks moved back to Greece as part of a population exchange between Greece and Turkey, and of lot of Jews moved for various reasons. We first took a walk around the neighborhood. Like most of Istanbul, the neighborhood is old, but it's not as beautiful as some of the other parts. There were a lot of burnt-out buildings, and a lot of fish markets! It was good to see part of modern Istanbul and learn about current issues, in addition to seeing the sights. We talked to members of an NGO called Mavi Kalem about the work they do, mostly with women and children in the community. They work in health education, counseling, and children's activities.

NGO front in Fener-Balat

Street in Fener-Balat

Fish stand. The streaks are from the snow.

Door to a synagoge. This is the old Jewish neighborhood of Istanbul, so the synagogue (like most things in the city) has been around for a while.

More of Fener-Balat

The neighborhood was a mix of run-down and just plain old.

Outside of the Greek Patriarchate

Inside. We had to be quiet because there was a service going on, but we walked around the 2 aisles separated from the seats in the church.

Interior

The entire front wall is covered in icons, and according to our guide the icons for each church are arranged in a special way.

I thought this icon was interesting because all of the "flesh" parts--face and hands--are removed, and you can see the wood in the background.

I ate lunch near the hotel on Istiklal with some friends, but afterwards I was feeling very tired from being out in the snow and the wind in the morning, so I stayed in tonight (trying to not get sicker!). Plus, I wanted to make sure I'm ready to go to see the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and Blue Mosque tomorrow! So excited, but I hear the weather is going to be difficult again tomorrow! We'll see ...

But a blog post wouldn't be my blog post without ... ta-da! A picture of food. I had these things a couple of times, they're called sigar borek. It's basically just fried dough with cheese inside. It's delicious.

Whirling Dervishes

Tonight we went to see the Whirling Dervishes. I'm not quite clear on the whole picture, but I got from our teacher's explanation that they are a part of a branch of mystic Sufi Islam and that this "dance" is not a performance but more of a ritual. The Turkish government didn't allow the practice of this branch of Islam, but once they realized that it would mean more money for them in terms of tourism, they decided to allow the Whirling Dervishes. Our teacher assured us, however, that this was the least-touristy one he could find. Still, it felt weird to be watching someone else pray and taking pictures ... but of course I did take pictures!

The dance was beautiful. Their whirling created waves in their long white robes, and some of them closed their eyes while they were spinning, but somehow they never bumped into each other. They spun in circles and then they would move in a circle together. Their movements were purposeful too: one hand is pointed upward to receive from Allah, and the other is pointed down to distribute what they receive to the world.

The "dancers" had music accompaniment as well. One man sang beautifully, he sang a capella for a few songs and was also accompanied by the instruments. One man played a flat, wooden drum, shaped like a tambourine. Another played a string instrument, almost like a bass, and the final played another string instrument more like a harp that you play in your lap. The last one was a wind instrument that sounded like a flute. The blending of sound was perfect.

Dinner was nothing much, although I did take a fabulous picture of how they serve tea in Turkey. All in all it was a fun night.

The room where we ate dinner

Dessert--delicious as usual

Turkish tea

Mosque that we passed on our way to the Whirling Dervishes. Most of the major mosques in the city are lit up at night--makes for a more interesting skyline.

Schools and Shopping

Second full day in Istanbul was great! We started the day with a visit to a Greek school. With the tensions fluctuating between Greece and Turkey since the World Wars the situations of the Greek and Turkish minorities in Turkey and Greece respectively have changed, always to match the other. The school we visited was suffering due to a dramatically decreased population. The rule is that they can accept only students who have one parent with Turkish citizenship (which is difficult to obtain if you are a Greek citizen living in Turkey). There are 42 kids in the entire school--and it's a primary and high school combined! They'd like to open up admission to kids with Greek parents but the government won't allow it. The principal was really sweet, though, and told us all about the success of the pupils that are at the school. All of them make it through the difficult exams necessary to get into Turkish university--with flying colors!

View from the Greek School

Me and my roommate, Amy!

Amy and Julia sipping juiceboxes, after we toured the school

Our second stop was Tesev, an NGO in Istanbul, where we heard a lecture on the Kurdish question in Turkey. This is a Muslim minority in Turkey that don't really identify as Turks, which is a problem (apparently, in the eyes of many) for national unity and cohesion in Turkey. The government has repeatedly ignored the Kurdish "question" as it is called, and have insisted that the Kurds are Turkish. Kurds are fighting for the right to teach in their own language (rather than Turkish) and for justice for various human rights violations, some of which are being prosecuted in the UN Court of Human Rights.

We then had lunch at a little restaurant by the waterfront, with another great view! Except, it went from gorgeous sun to windy snow! The weather here changes by the minute. Lunch was another extravaganza, similar to our dinner the first night.

After lunch I went with Leah and Julia to the Egyptian Spice Bazar. It was really neat--all different stalls, selling mostly tea, spices, scarves, and tiles/decorative plates. The smells are incredible! The pictures speak for themselves.

Gorgeous view crossing the bridge to get to the Spice Bazar

Another mosque--the architecture is amazing!

This is the view of the side of the city that our hotel was on, with the Galata Tower sticking out of the skyline

Another view from the bridge

Spices!

Turkish Delight and other sweets

Julia, Leah, and I at the Spice Bazar

View of the Bazar--it seems pretty big, but it's nothing compared to the Grand Bazar

They have lots of little shops with pottery (of varying quality). The colors are beautiful.

Up next: Whirling Dervish "performance" on Tuesday night!