Turkey day 2

Our first day of field-tripping in Turkey! Wahoo!! While walking to our first site, I discovered and saw...

Beautiful doorways everywhere! I absolutely love beautiful doors.

There are cats EVERYWHERE. Literally, you can see dozens wherever you go. We aren't supposed to pet them, because they all have fleas and mites and ticks. But they're so precious :)

The best university in Turkey! Look how fancy that entrance is. Our guide told us that the Turks use the Arabic alphabet, but the Turkish language. So it's like Turkish in disguise. Wow...

These outfits/creepy dolls for sale. I considered buying some of them for my neicews, but I refrained. But they sure are fun to look at! I wonder if kids wear those clothes on a regular basis?

There are pigeons everywhere! One of our girls ran through the pigeons screaming and scared them all. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I wish I would've filmed it :)

Our first view of the Blue Mosque!! It's within walking distance from our hotel! SO EXCITING!! Look at that beautiful building!

More cats. Except these ones reminded me of Cow, Dan's very fat cat. They're skinnier, unfortunately, but I think Cow has some long lost triplets. 

Doorways of fancy places are often decorated with beautiful scripts and designs. I wish I knew what they said!

Hippodrome

Our first site was the Hippodrome of Constantinople! A hippodrome is a "horse track", and it also serves as a social gathering place. Unfortunately, nothing remains of Constantine's hippodrome except some monuments in the middle, but we'll get to that. The Hippodrome could hold up to 100,000 people! The most memorable even in the history of the hippodrome was the Nika Riot. Constantinople's major sport clubs, the Blues and the Greens, sponsored chariot teams and also represented competing political factions. They often engaged in hooliganism at sporting events. At a chariot race in 532 AD, they started a riot and revolt against the Emperor Justinian. Over the course of a week of rioting, thousands died, and much of the city was destroyed, including the main church, the Hagia Sophia. Justinian finally put down the revolt by slaughtering 30,000 people (mostly Greens) in the Hippodrome. He then built the Hagia Sophia that still stands today. 

 

This building thing (under renovation right now) was given to the Ottoman Empire by the Germans as thanks for being their allies during WWII. Interesting...

This column is 3,500 years old!!! It is a huge pink granite obelisk from Thutmose III that was shipped from the Karnak Temple in Egypt to be placed in the Hippodrome. Emperor Tehodosius had it brought here, and only the upper third is on display.

This is the closest I'm going to get to Egypt, I think. I LOVE EGYPT!!!! I'm so lucky I got to see this!! :)

 

This is the Iron Serpent Column that Constantine imported from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece. It is a statue of three intertwined snakes, and each of their heads used to hold a gold ball. The column was made by melting the shields of their defeated enemies! How cool is that? Too bad the heads are all broken off...but it's still epic!

This is called the Walled Obelisk and was originally covered with gilded bronze plaques (see the holes where they were stuck onto the stone?), but the plaques were plundered by Latins during the fourth crusade.

The Blue Mosque

Why is it called the Blue Mosque? There are over 20,000 beautiful decorated blue ceramic tiles from Nicea covering the interior. It was built by Sultan Ahmet I of the Ottoman Empire when he was 14 years old. It has a large courtyard, Ahmet's tomb, and originally contained a madrasa (school) and a hospice. Ahmet severely damaged the economy of his empire by building this grandiose structure :) It has a series of domes cascading down from the central dome, and is called the last great mosque of the classical period. It has eight domes surrounding the central dome, and is about 141 feet high. 

 Going to enter into the Sultanahmet (another name for it) mosque! Eep, so excited! Look how beautiful!

In the courtyard of the mosque, waiting to go in and see all the beautiful blue tiles!

They weren't kidding when they said that the tiles were exquisite. Each one is hand painted! The detail and care with which this mosque was built is absolutely amazing.

I know this is a fuzzy picture, but it does help you get the scale of things. The mosque is HUGE--look how far that dome reaches, and how open and lit everything is! 

Tried to do a little panorama so you could get a better view of the domes and pillars. WOW.

Roommate picture! Don't we look authentically Muslim with our headscarves? :) We're standing in front of the big open area where people still worship. Only men are allowed to go there to pray.

Yay, I said my own little prayer in one of the world's greatest mosques!

A little view of the ceiling under the dome. I hope that you can get a little sense of the enormity and the beauty of this place. Just remember that all of these incredible tiles are hand painted. 

Outside of the Blue Mosque with my cute roommate, India. What an incredible experience!

One of the six minarets of the Blue Mosque. These are one of its defining features--there's a story behind why the mosque has six minarets. Although the normal number of minarets for this kind of mosque is four (compare the Hagia Sophia), Sultan Ahmet I wanted to build the mosque that would surpass the grandeur of every other building. The six minarets created a controversy because the Grand Mosque in Mecca (which also contains the Kaaba) also had six minarets. The issue was resolved, though, when Ahmet sent his architect to Mecca to add another minaret to the Grand Mosque.

Montana has a ring from Mark Steel Jewelry. Dan gave me the same one for Valentine's day! Twinners! I love my wonderful Dan :)

In front of the Blue Mosque! It's so incredible! And right across the street, there's the...

Hagia Sophia!! One of the 7 wonders of the ancient world!

In front of the Hagia Sophia. Proof that I was there :)

Look at these cute colored apartment complexes! Reminds me of the lovely ones in Woods Cross, as you drive out onto 1500? Sniff. I miss home :)

Michelle and I with Dr. Jackson in front of the Hagia Sophia!

In front of the Blue Mosque! Emily, India, Lizzy, Michelle, and Alyssa!

Topkapi Palace

This place was built by Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II in 1453. It served as the primary residence of the Sultans for over 400 years! It has since been converted into a museum. There are three gates to enter through, and each one gets more specific as to the kind of people that can come through. At the last gate, you have to be royalty or a palace servant to pass through, ON THE PENALTY OF DEATH! The Byzantine Church of Holy Peace is in the first courtyard; this is where the Second Ecumenical Council took place. 

The fountain in front of the first gate. This is a place where women would come and socialize as they got water. Look, women are socializing...keeping traditions alive! :)

Entering into the  second gate! Looks like I'm going to Disneyland, eh? It's the Disneyland of Turkey! But really it's just a really cool gate.

Part of the beautiful ceiling in the Imperial Council Room! My camera was dying, so I couldn't get many pictures. AND they wouldn't let us take any pictures in any of the exhibits, so I have no documentation. So sad :(

Just a little view of the doorway coming out of the Imperial Council Room. I sure do love doorways :)

America!!! How I love thee!! I would LOVE to have an audio guide in English...

This is through the third gate. I'm in the Topkapi Palace Library, trying to pose like The Thinker and act all intelligent.

A lovely fountain in front of the library! For ablutions? drinking? I have no idea.

Here's a little tribute to the incredible things I saw in the exhibits that I wasn't allowed to take pictures of. I saw the Imperial Treasury, which was one of the best things ever. There were SO MANY jewel-encrusted thingies. Wow. Boxes and brooches and knifes and teapots and mirrors and books...I was in heaven. And then the best thing of all: the Spoonmaker's Diamond. No big deal, it's just 86 carats. I went back to look at it 3 different times. I LOVE sparkly things. I was very tempted to risk my life and steal that thing outta that glass case, but I refrained. It was so beautiful :) Also, going into another part of the palace, I saw 'authentic' holy relics like King David's sword, Muhammad's beard hair, the staff of Aaron, the  arm and skull of John the Baptist, and Muhammad's sword. They were all super duper neat, especially the beard hair. That was definitely life changing :) But we keep locks of Joseph Smith's hair, so I see no problem with preserving all you can of someone you love and revere. I just find a beard a humorous place to get a hair :)

Mmm...best dessert ever. I don't even know what some of those fruits were, but they were all DELISH! I love lunch :)

Emily Hales and I have matching rainbow scarves! She is such a wonderful girl, I really love her!

Basilica Cistern

This is a HUGE underground cistern built by Justinian! It was built underneath a huge building that was already existing--how they did that without everything collapsing, nobody knows.  It was built to provide water for the Imperial Palace (built where the Blue Mosque is currently located). It has 336 columns of marble and granite with Doric and Corinthian capitals, along with walls that are 13 feet thick! Some of the column bases are reused from earlier structures. 

To me, this just looks like Moria and the halls of Khazad-dum. I was freaking out, expecting a Balrog to come around a corner at any second. Unfortunately, the floor was covered with water, and there were giant fish swimming around instead. WAY scarier than a Balrog.

Having a real LOTR moment. Too cool to be true.

Remember how some of the columns were reused from other buildings? Well, they found two huge Medusa head stones in here. These stones were used in earlier Roman structrures, probably as a symbol of protection. Now they're being used as column supports. Michelle and I are scared that we are going to be turned to stone by looking at Medusa!!

Bosphorus Strait cruise

In case you haven't noticed, Michelle, Erika, and I all bought hoodies at the same place. Aaannnd they all match. Triplets :)

Beautiful picture! I do believe that's the Hagia Sophia. And that's a large boat.

Making some faces, I guess. I think I missed the memo. Michelle, Erika, India, Emily, Lexie, Lizzy, Skyler.

Some of my friends on the cruise...Preston, India, Michelle, and Erika!

LOOK, castle ruins!! These are some of the remains of the walls and fortifications that existed during the Ottoman empire!

I think I would like to live in this castle.

Look at this view! :)

Pretty pretty pretty, cruise picture!

Against the coastline and sunset! This cruise was so fun and beautiful!! :)

The flag of Turkey against the shore of Turkey...epic? Yes.

Look at this picture I took of Sara and Preston. If they get married, this should be their engagement photo. :)

Crazy wind hair. It's my lot in life to be the girl with the unmanageable hair.

A view of the lovely bridge spanning the Bosporus Strait, joining the European and Asian sides of Turkey.

Just another view of two of the most incredible mosques in the world. The Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia...this country is amazing. So beautiful! :)

There was some swanky music playing at dinner, and John asked Montana to dance. I've never seen somebody blush so much. It was so hilarious and really adorable :)