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Doing the Tourist Thing in Istanbul


The day we decided to go sightseeing within Istanbul, Turkey I was dreading the thought of standing in long queues for hours in the heat. But luckily for us, every visit to Istanbul's main tourist attractions went smoothly, the longest we have stayed in a queue was a maximum of 10 minutes. It was Friday so we decided to first visit Topkapi Palace, followed by Hagia Sophia, and left The Blue Mosque at the end as it closes during Friday prayer. 
 
I used an audio guide and I remember it mentioning that Topkapi Palace was first constructed in 1450's by Sultan Mehmet II when he conquered Istanbul. It was the Sultan's main Palace. The best part was the jewelry and caftans areas, unfortunately photography was prohibited inside those rooms. However I managed to take a couple of photos of the caftans like the one shown above. I have also shared a photo of one of the caftans on my instagram (@confashions). Over 500 years old! Can you imagine? Amazing.

Check out the beautiful design and the stones used for the floor at Topkapi Palace as shown in the photo above. Would love to have something similar for our garden.

Our next visit was Hagia Sophia. Our guide informed us that it served as a church until the city was conquered by the Ottomans and converted the church into a mosque. I was really amazed by the details of its amazing dome (shown above), I can't believe it's over 1,400 years old! The mosaics used by the Byzantine truly survived the test of time.

Our final visit before heading to the Grand Bazaar was the Blue Mosque, officially called the Sultan Ahmet Mosque by locals. It was named the Blue Mosque because of the beautiful blue tiles decorating its interior, on a side note, I'm quite impressed by myself for remembering all this info considering I have a memory of a goldenfish! Oh and check out the ceiling shown below, beautiful details! 



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Anonymous said…
one of my fav places in turkey, would love to visit again
05 September, 2012
Confashion said…
justnoon
me too!! again and again and again!
05 September, 2012
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