Sept 19 - So, first off, this country recently, sort of, changed its name from Turkey to Türkiye. Sort of, because the name used in Turkish did not change, only the version used in the international forum. This change was announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in July 2022, who said, "The word Türkiye represents and expresses the culture, civilisation, and values of the Turkish nation in the best way,”
This comes amid a number of moves made in recent years that appeal to popular and patriotic sentiment among Turks. Some of these other moves I think have been cheap shots and getting votes. In this particular case, it seems like a decent move. At least in English, it removes the inevitable comparison to the bird. And it doesn’t overly complicate things by adding extra words (which is annoying and self-serving).
Head out early from our hotel to a certain embassy to get a certain thing. But we are unsuccessful today (a common result at embassies), so cross Sultanahmet to the core of the historical district at Sultan Ahmet Park.
First stop is the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnıcı). This massive underground storage facility was originally constructed by Justinian I in the 6th Century. There are many cisterns in the city, but this one is particularly large, having the capacity to hold 80,000 cubic meters of water. The room is supported by 336 stone columns.
A bit dark in here for photos. Raised walkways take the visitors around the base, and a bit of water has been left in the bottom.
They shift the lighting every few minutes, which makes for interesting photos, but makes it very difficult to read the historical descriptions posted on boards by the entrance. The columns are a mix of styles (Corinthian and Ionic, with a few Doric), some of which were made for this purpose, and others that were salvaged from other parts of the empire.
The most famous columns here are two that have Medusa heads as their bases. The most likely explanation is that these heads were part of some other pre-existing structure, but salvaged for use here. The sideways placement most likely reflects the need for a specific height underneath the column.
Another Medusa, upside-down.
A faint dark line can be seen at the same height along this row of columns. This undoubtedly reflects a prolonged stable water level.
Across the street is the Hagia Sophia. This is one of the most important sites in İstanbul. It was built in 532-37 under the reign of Justinian I, and its name means ‘holy wisdom’. It has long been considered an architectural marvel, and after its construction, the style was emulated by other Orthodox churches, as well as mosques much later.
About the best one can do for an overall photo of the Hagia Sophia.
Though beginning its life as simply a church of Christendom, it later became victim to the East-West Christian split known as the ‘Great Schism’ in the 9th Century. As such, it went back and forth between being an Orthodox and Catholic church depending on what group was currently in control of the city. After the fall of Constantinople to the Muslim forces in 1453, it was converted to a mosque (hence the minaret and ablution fountain visible in the photo).
Though the names of Allah and Muhammad are visible on the walls, these were later additions after 1453 when it became a mosque. The artistry and gold paint in the upper reaches are part of the older Orthodox decor. When I visited this place 30 years ago, it was still called a ‘museum’, going by its name as a church. However, one of the recent populist measures (in 2020) has been to reclassify it again as a mosque. It seems like a nonsensical move, as 99% of the people going in here are tourists.
A marble jar, carved from a single piece, used to dispense water and sherbet to the masses during special events. They were brought from Pergamon by Sultan Murat III (1574-95).
The fully pendentive central dome (first of its kind in the world). Note the four angles around the sides. These are remnants of the Christian design, though the faces have been removed from three of them (lower right still amazingly shows a face). These were probably plastered over after 1453 and brought back to light much later.
Cleaning the active worship area. Being a mosque now, visitors much remove their shoes upon entry. The floor is now covered in thick blue carpets.
This bit of flooring was left uncovered. It shows a number of circles, and essentially functions as a symbolic map of the Roman/Byzantine Empire. The gray speckled rock in the center represents the region around Constantinople. the dark red Egypt, green Greece, etc. Each of the rocks used for the circles came from those places. The Emperor would have been coronated in the middle of the central disk.
Hanging around in an elevated secluded portion of the central chamber. It took awhile to get into Hagia Sophia, as there is always a line of many hundreds to get in. It took us about 40 minutes standing in line.
Odette contemplates the vastness of history.
Some bits of older iconography that remains: To the right is Emperor Constantine, holding a model of the city, and to the left is Emperor Justinian I holding a model of Hagia Sophia. They are presenting these to the Virgin Mary and Child.
On to the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque), which is just a few blocks away. Unfortunately, this gargantuan structure is undergoing a lot of restoration, and is wholly uninteresting to photograph close up.
The only good photos can be taken from afar, in this case, from the fountain at the Sultan Ahmet Park. The mosque has six minarets, but only the central four of them are visible in this photo.
We stand in line anyway and go in, though over half of the floor area is closed off for construction.
Nearby is a slick tourist bazaar, with shops lining a street.
The touts are fairly low-key, as long as you don’t stop to linger over the shop window for too long.
Along this street is the entrance for the Istanbul Mosaic Museum, on the site of one of the original Roman palaces established when Constantine declared that Constantinople would be a capital city to rival Rome. The mosaic floors of this palace were discovered only about 50 years ago, as they were buried by many structures since. They probably date from the 5th to 6th Century.
These are seriously well crafted designs. Note the uniform background of white tiles, in a pattern of arches, and the intricacies of the foreground design. Even the boy in the front has multiple degrees of shading on his shirt.
There were several scenes of animals eating other animals. In this case, a bear eating some sort of tiny deer, with plenty of blood.
Small boy with dog.
Apparently many of the scenes in these mosaics do not have a clear known symbolism, as there are many that are not repeated at other sites. In this display there are goats, deer, a solider, a griffon, and a snake in a battle to the death with a snake. The latter, while eerily similar to the symbol for Mexico, actually is fairly common in antiquity and means the victory of light over darkness.
Returning to the series of plazas by the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque, there are a few monuments on display.
The most interesting of these is the Serpent Column below. It originally stood in Delphi, Greece, and was made after the battles of Salamis (480 BCE) and Platea (479 BCE) to commemorate the victory over the Persians. It has inscribed in the lower coils the names of all 31 cities that took part in the battles. It was moved to Constantinople much later.
The remaining monument is a copper column composed of three intertwined snakes. The heads (three) fell off but used to splay out in three directions at the top. Above them rested a metal bowl, originally used for melting gold gained as spoils of war. The column itself was supposedly forged from the shields and armor of the defeated Persians.
Like everyone else in Europe, the Emperors of Constantinople stole an Egyptian obelisk. It originally stood at the entrance to Karnak Temple, Upper Egypt, and was dedicated to the Pharaoh Tutmoses III, who ruled in about 1450 BCE.
The base of the obelisk served as propaganda for the Romans. It was Constantine the Great who ordered the obelisk to be brought here from Egypt, but it took until the reign of Theodosius I for it to show up.
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