(day 3) Topkapi Palace (Topkapi Sarayi)

Topkapi Palace was one of the major residencies for sultans of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years, about 2/3 of the empire's lifetime. It was built by Mehmed II, better known as Mehmed the Conqueror, the sultan who finally was able to achieve the conquest of Constantinople. Constantinople was an incredibly defensible city; based on geography alone, it is situated on a peninsula and surrounded by water on three sides, with the fourth side protected by a thick wall (the Theodosian walls, built by Emperor Theodosius). That, combined with the might of the Byzantine Empire ensured that the city had never been taken by force.

Enter Mehmed. Middle name "the", last name "Conqueror". With a name like that Constantinople didn't stand a chance.

Just kidding, The Byzantine Empire had been on the decline for the last couple of hundred years, and could no longer muster up a sizable force to defend its walls. Still, they had the formidable Theodosian walls, which had never been toppled, and the Byzantine Iron Chain stretched across the mouth of the Golden Horn to prevent naval forces from entering the city by sea.

As both sides geared up for battle, the Byzantines were approached by a Hungarian cannon maker, who had completed work on a huge cannon that he wanted to sell to the city. The Byzantines were like sweet, we hella want this cannon and will pay any price for it, only thing is, we have no money. Nonplussed, the Hungarian diplomatically offered the cannon to the other side. Large cannon obtained! They busted through the Theodosian Walls like the Kool-aid man, for the first time in Constantinople history, and thousands of troops poured through.

To solve the problem of the Iron Chain, Mehmed portaged his ships over land by means of brute force and a lot of manpower and entered the Golden Horn from the other side of the chain.

After a 7 week siege, Constantinople fell and the Byzantine Empire was no more.

Mehmed moved in and built Topkapi Palace right along the coast.

Hundreds of years later, thousands of tourists pour into his royal home and wait in long lines to gawk at structures and objects that they don't understand the historical significance of.

This little building sits right in front of the entrance to Topkapi Palace. I was really excited to see it because when I read about the function of these buildings it really helped transport me to a different time.

Back during the time of the Ottoman Empire, there were many dusty travelers coming and going by horse or on foot. Rich merchants, or nobles would build these little kiosks to offer passersby refreshments, on their own dime. It was a sort of charitable gesture, and in additional to providing a goodwill service to people, could maybe help boost the patron on the path to Heaven.

Most just served water, but more wealthy patrons might offer sherbet or juice.

This one, right outside Topkapi Palace, is quiet large, befitting a sultan's wealth and status.

Closer look.

The refreshments would be passed through these little windows. 

The main gate to the palace. Yes this is a really shitty picture that doesn't accurately represent the grandeur of the gate, but mentally mirror it over the y-axis and scale by 1000. It's really big!

The palace itself consists of four courtyards (mainly) plus many smaller buildings. The first courtyard is huge, the sultan and his entourage would ride in through this main gate to the first courtyard on horseback. As you go in deeper and deeper to the palace, the courtyards are smaller and more intimate, and fewer people are allowed into each one. The last courtyard is for private audiences between the sultan and his advisors.

If you were a giant, this is what Topkapi Palace would look like.

The first thing we did was rush back to the fourth courtyard, to wait in line to see the Treasury Room, before the line got too long. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it's definitely worth a look. Jewel-encrusted everything-you-can-image, emeralds and rubies the size of quail eggs -- these are all treasures of the Ottoman sultans, kept here for safekeeping.

I'll just tell the two interesting stories I read about the imperial treasures.

One case holds a huge glittering diamond, surrounded by a double row of smaller diamonds. It is called the Spoonmaker's Diamond. As one legend tells it, a poor man is digging through some rubble and garbage when he finds a shiny stone. He haggled with a spoonmaker and was able to get three spoons in exchange for the rock. The spoonmaker takes it to a jeweler who recognizes it for what it's worth, and the 4th largest diamond in the world eventually makes its way up to the sultan, until finally it achieved its destiny by being beheld by me, Stephanie Lee, tourist #14802348.

There are other versions of the story, but basically the same theme where poor people get fucked and the 1% profit.

The second item is a beautiful dagger with three HUGE emeralds set into the pommel, and encrusted with diamonds down the length of the sheath. It was commissioned by sultan Mahmud as a gift to the shah of Persia, who had gifted Mahmud with the Peacock Throne taken from Delhi. Unfortunately while still en route to the shah, the shah was killed in a rebellion (assassinated, I guess), and so the Ottoman ambassadors brought the dagger back to the sultan. It was like BOGO throne and dagger. P good deal.

The line to see the Treasury.

Topkapi Palace is really, really huge. I seriously underestimated it. We were there for hours and hours and still barely grazed the surface of what was there, though I think we saw the highlights. I won't bore you with all the details, and I wasn't allowed to take a picture of most things. Among what I saw, other items of note included Moses' staff (I STILL cannot believe that that's true. I mean I guess it is but how can they have MOSES' STAFF? To me that's like saying oh, here in this case we have Zeus' thunderbolt, or, look over there, it's Mjolnir), the sword of the prophet David, a tooth and pieces of Muhammad's beard, as well as a footprint left by Muhammed. Sadly the significance of a lot of the Islamic religious artifacts was lost on me, since I don't know enough about the stories and background of the religion.

Of course, the sultan picked the best location for his palace, so the walkways around the edge of Topkapi Palace offer beautiful views of the sea. You can see across the Bosphorus Strait here, and it was really fun to see lots of activity happening on the water, large cargo boats, small ferry boats, all criss crossing their way across the water to different parts of Istanbul.

My travel companions, the one on the left (my right) is the Uzbekistan guy that works at the hostel, Ali, on the right is Kurt from Taiwan.

From another spot along the walkway. It was a sunny day and there was a nice breeze coming through, it was really comfortable.

As proof that I am in fact alive and writing this blog, me. Yes I hate taking pictures but Ali made me. 

He took like a thousand pictures and kept saying "Why do you hef no eyez in theze piktors? Open your eyez!" (Russian accent).

If only it were Monday, then he would have to obey my shirt and not talk.

No eyes. :(

Pretty roses and trees everywhere.

Each sultan, of course, wanted to leave their mark on Topkapi Palace, and so the palace structures were ever expanding, and increasing in number. Many of the structures we saw were kiosks or pavilions that were used as "chill spaces". 

Many had long red bed/couch/divans for lounging around.

And brightly lit from sun pouring through beautiful stained glass windows. 

The Terrace Pavilion, where they could watch sportive events or entertainment in the gardens.

Many of the rooms had a fireplace against one wall to keep the space warm. However, the room would be unevenly heated, especially hot near the fireplace and cold in the opposite corner. These portable heaters were filled with coals from the fire and moved out into the room to extend the sphere of heat.

This beautiful exterior wall adorn the most fair and delicate room of all, the Room of the Fair Maidens.

Haha just kidding. It's called the Circumcision Room. Precious royal centimeters were lost here.

If you look closely at the tiles to the left and right of the center panel, you can see an unusual sight in Iznik tiles. Hidden in the arabesques and flourishes are shapes that look like birds and beasts! In Islamic religion, it's forbidden to attempt to even recreate the semblance of a living form, since it's thought that only God has that right. That is why all of the decoration and designs on the interiors of mosques and such only contain geometric shapes and patterns. The artists here cheated a bit, they made bird-like shapes, but the "birds" don't have any eyes, which is what qualifies them as living things, so technically these tiles are Allah-approved. All-ahpproved. Heh heh.

I rather like the tessellations, though it makes most mosques look alike (to me).

And countless other kiosks/pavilions not pictured here.

Even though there was tons more to see, and tons of information to be absorbed, I was hungry and tired and no longer cared. We breezed through the (HUGE) palace kitchens (no photos allowed), the really really cool Clock Room (I wish I had spent more time there, huge collection of clocks), Weaponry Room (again, really really cool), Armory Room (suits of armor). We then did a run-through of what I had originally been most interested in seeing, the harem (coming soon to a blog post near you). I wish I'd had more energy to look around but I kind of raced through. Then finally exited to find lunch!

(Just a random kiosk). 

 Topkapi Palace! A huge museum of interesting artifacts and information. Definitely go see it.