Once again we were on the search for the Topkapi Palace but got lost and found the... Archaeological Museum. In said museum we found 3000 years worth of 'relics'. My oh my. They have so many artefacts they store a few couple of thousand year old marble um things in the well, garden where the kids can play on them... There are literally rooms and rooms and rooms filled with marble statues from the Greek and Roman eras, not to mention sarcophagi, puppets etc etc
So this one is believed (by the Turks at least) to be Alexander the Greats sarcophagus. Unfortunately there is no actual proof to substantiate this but hey, no one knows for sure where he is finally resting so why not. Hmmm you'd have thought he'd had enough of battles in life not to spend his time after life surrounded by pictures of them.
I took a file worth of photos of Greek and Roman sculptures, all the while trying to learn how to tell the difference (apparently the Greeks didnt like facial expression while the Romans did, um or was it the other way around) and remember who they where. But the only one I could figure out who it was post holiday was good old Artemis here. The sculptures are incredible. Unbelievably lifelike and mostly perfectly preserved (they seem to battle to hold on to their hands though)
Outside the Hagia Sophia, in the Sultanahmet Square are the remains of the Hippodrome which was built with the Circus Maximus, in Rome, in mind. Construction began with Septimus Severus in 203AD and was finally completed on a grander scale by Constantine in 325AD. Originally it seated 100 000 spectators. The Column below is that of Constantine Porphyrgenatus and was originally covered with bronze plaques. These unfortunately did not make it past the Latin invasion in 1204 (4th Crusade??? all the second language Info Booklets get confusing) as they were smelted and minted. For a contrasting column: See the Obelisk of Theodosius - Egyptian Obelisk....interesting comparison of conditions. (yes, ok this one did have its clothes removed)
And here we have another blogger mix up. We are now standing on the first bridge over the Golden Horn looking at the old side of the city and the Yeni Mosque at night. The Captain suggested I put this one in (though he did not dictate this unfortunately random ordering of photos) as it shows the rows of fishing rods hanging over the bridge. The bridge is lined with fishermen day and night. And what with all the food on wheels in this city of convenience, they have an option of 1Euro dinners pushed right too them, never having to reel in to enjoy a meal of chicken and couscous or whole fried fish or perhaps even a green mielie.
The sun was setting on our first day in Istanbul and after having run our feet off looking for the Topkapi Palace (to no avail) we sat in a tea garden, in the park previously featured on this blog, sipping coffee and watching life on the Bospherous go by.
Across the bay, looking substantially closer through the Captains portable telescope he calls a camera lens, is Leander's Tower. The Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenos built it in the 12thC as a foundation for the ginormous chain he used to close the Bosphorous to sea traffic. The legend behind this tower, as in most cases, is slightly more um entertaining than the practicality of the believed to be true version. uhurum Once upon a time there lived the Emperor Constantine who had a daughter more beautiful than a thousand rising suns. One day a nasty old fortune teller told the Emperor that this light of his life was going to be bitten by a snake one day and die. So the Emperor did the only thing he could...built a tower in the middle of the sea and locked his daughter in it... Unfortunately even towered princesses need food and one day, as so often happens, there was a snake hidden in a basket of grapes brought to the island tower. The snake bit the princess and she died.
This legend, though not the only one about the tower, gave the tower its name often used today Kiz Kulesi, Maiden's Tower
(The version I read was slightly dry so I may have added a few 'once upon a times' and '1000 suns' but the storyline is the same)
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