Hippodrome

It doesn't look like much today, but the Hippodrome was the center of life for the Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans for 1,400 years. Originally a racetrack, it is now little more than a park. In its heyday, it could seat 100,000 people. It was dismantled over time and filled in with refuse and dirt. The remaining stones from the bleachers were used to build parts of the Blue Mosque.

This picture should be called "A Walk Down Memory Lane".

Nope, we're not back in Egypt. This Egyptian obelisk was carved for pharaoh Thutmose III in 1450 B.C., but Emperor Theodosius took it as a prize in 390 A.D. as the new eastern empire sucked the remaining wealth out of the old Roman Empire (which included Egypt). What remains is only the upper third of the 3,500-year-old original.

If you look closely below and to the left of the obelisk, you can see the weathered green spiral column known as the Column of Serpents. It was erected in Delphi (yep, Delphi) at the Temple of Apollo. It was brought here by Constantine who, like Theodosius, wanted to take a few souvenirs from the crumbling western empire. Originally this column would have had three serpents' heads holding a golden trophy.

This is called the Column of Constantine. He built it to congratulate himself. A later emperor had it sheathed in bronze. When the Fourth Crusade raided the city in 1202, the bronze was stripped off to be made into weapons.

The marauders of the Fourth Crusade managed to cart off most of the treasures that had decorated the Hippodrome. Several stolen statues are on display in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.

Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Istanbul several times to bribe the sultan. On one such trip, he brought this little fountain. The kaiser's efforts paid off. The Ottomans joined the Central Powers and subsequently lost World War I. It cost them their entire empire.

Blue Mosque

Our next stop was the huge mosque next to Aya Sofya. Locals call it the Sultanahmet Mosque because it was financed by Sultan Ahmet I, and because the area surrounding it is also known as Sultanahmet. But guidebooks tend to call it the Blue Mosque because of the wealth of blue tiles that cover the interior.

Unfortunately, we hit the mosque just as prayer services were about to start. So, we broke for lunch at the Dervish Café and Restaurant behind Aya Sofya to wait it out.

There are six minarets around the Blue Mosque. (By comparison, Aya Sofya has four.) At the time it was built, only one other mosque in the world had six minarets, and it was in Islam's holiest city, Mecca. Not to be outdone, Mecca's clergy built a seventh minaret at Mecca.

This is the inner courtyard. The old ablution fountain shown here is purely for decoration now. Today, the real ablutions happen to the right of the steps before the inner courtyard.

Women must cover their hair, shoulders and knees before they are allowed inside the mosque.

The architecture is similar to Aya Sofya (domes upon domes). But since it was built 11 centuries afterward, they made many improvements. First, they added lots of windows. Aya Sofya's walls could not afford the strain that windows would have made. Second, there are no exterior buttresses to clutter the courtyard. Instead, the weight is distributed almost entirely to just four "elephant foot" columns.

No shoes allowed. You carried them with you in a little plastic bag.

Behind me is the men's worshiping area. The women worship at the back of the mosque behind a screen, or upstairs. There is a practical reason for keeping men and women separate. The positions one must make to properly worship Allah are quite suggestive. Muslims don't want to be having any impure thoughts during prayers.

Underground Cistern

Constantinople's water supply was brought in via aqueduct, which meant it was vulnerable to enemy attack. So, Emperor Justinian built this massive Underground Cistern (and others like it) as a hedge against a long siege.

When the Ottomans took over, the cistern fell out of use and was forgotten. Centuries later, people started questioning why you could sink a well anywhere in this area and find an endless supply of fresh water. And even go fishing! After a bit of exploration, they re-discovered the Underground Cistern.

The entrance to the Underground Cistern is across the street from Aya Sofya.

Visitors once had to rent boats to explore the cistern. Today, they pump out all but about a foot of water and walkways take you through this underworld.

The dim light and the faint dripping sounds gave it an eerie sort of "Phantom of the Opera" feel.

Yup, those are fish.

The Byzantines used whatever columns were available to support the brick roof. Notice all the different styles of columns and capitals.

There's wild speculation about the meaning of the two "Medusa head" columns. One is on its side (shown here), and one is upside down. Some say they symbolized the destruction of the pagan religions. Or possibly they were an attempt to scare off evil spirits. Others say they were simply pieces of stone that were the right size to support the column above.

Day 13: Aya Sofya

There's so much on the agenda today. But first let's start with a brief history lesson.

Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul. When am I?

The first real "city" on this spot was established by Greek colonists in 659 B.C. Sure, there had been small Hittite and Anatolian villages before that, but the first real settlement was made by a Greek named Byzas. The city was called Byzantium. That lasted about 60 years before Persians drove them out. The Persians' rule ended in 334 B.C., courtesy of Alexander the Great. After his death, the region sort of swished to and fro without much stability until Roman Emperor Vespasian took control in 73 A.D. As part of the Roman Empire, it suffered its share of imperial rivalry and intrigue. One quarrel even caused the city to burn to the ground in 196.

Emperor Constantine chose Byzantium to be his new capital in 330 A.D. He called it Nova Roma. The people called it Constantinople. When Emperor Theodosius died in 395 A.D., the thriving eastern part of the empire decided to leave the decaying western portion to fend for itself. This new "Byzantine Empire" would last for more than a thousand years. The greatest Byzantine emperor was Justinian (527-565).

By the 11th century, the Crusades were wreaking havoc all over the region. Muslim Selçuks took control of nearly every part of the Byzantine Empire, but, try as they may, could not push the Christians out of Constantinople. A funny (tragic) thing happened during the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). Christian crusaders sacked their own brethren's city and carried off its treasure. It took 50 years for the Byzantines to push their European "friends" out. The Selçuks gave way to Ottoman Turks, but still the Christians resisted. By the mid-1400s, the Orthodox Christians of the east had severed ties with the Catholic Christians in the west. There was no help coming, and Ottoman sultan Mehmet II smelled blood. In 1453, he set about conquering Constantinople once and for all. For two months, he laid siege to the city. The Byzantines had built strong city walls, and they stretched a chain across the Golden Horn to keep out enemy ships. But clever Mehmet had a plan: pull the ships out of the water, drag them across greased logs, and deposit them on the other side of the chain. All in one night! His crazy plan worked. By the next day, he controlled the best fortified city of its time. The reign of Ottoman sultans would last until the end of the first World War.

Our first stop today will be the massive Aya Sofya. It was built by Emperor Justinian as a church. It would be converted into a mosque by the Ottomans and into a museum by Atatürk.

There are four brick minarets. Notice how they transition from round to square for stability.

Let me give you some perspective. The Statue of Liberty could do jumping jacks in here.

The scaffolding was a huge distraction, but you could still see that the interior was enormous.

There are two floors.

By the way, Islam does not permit human figures in religious art. So, they use a lot of calligraphy as decoration.

This is the Miracle Column of St. Gregory. For centuries, people believed that this column "wept" holy water. You would stick your thumb in the hole, turn your hand a full 360 degrees, and if it came out damp, your prayer would be answered.

To the right of the apse (alter removed by the Muslims), is a staircase called a mimber. The imam stands only halfway up in deference to Mohammed.

The second floor is referred to as the Upper Galleries. It has a beautifully painted ceiling. To reach the second floor, you climb a spiraling collection of straight ramps. Why ramps and not stairs? For the emperor's horse or litter carriers, of course. He couldn't be expected to walk.

Here's an example of one of the many mosaics on the second floor. It would have been plastered over either during the iconoclast era (when "icons" were out of vogue in Christianity) or when it was converted into a mosque.

You had to really be there to appreciate the fine detail.

This mosaic had a funny backstory. Jesus is in the middle with Empress Zoe on the right and her husband on the left. Her first husband died, and she remarried. Rather than redo the entire mosaic, they just changed his name. But he was soon dead, too. Then, her perfidious nephew seized power and had her face "defaced". She returned to power and had it restored. She then married a third time. His name is the one you see here.

Orient Express

In the 1880s, the fastest and most fashionable way to travel to Istanbul was via the Orient Express railway. You could board a train in Paris, and three days later you would arrive at Istanbul's Sirkeci Train Station. The northern route took you through Munich, Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest. The southern route took you through Milan, Belgrade, and Sofia.

The Orient Express operated almost continuously for nearly a hundred years. (It was interrupted occasionally during both World Wars.) Agatha Christie immortalized it in her novel "Murder on the Orient Express".

The station is still in use, mainly for suburban trains and a few international trains.

Asia

Strictly speaking, I'd never been to Asia before. Even when I visited Russia, I never crossed the Ural Mountains and thus never left Europe. However, for this trip, I wanted to make certain that we stepped foot in Asia. To that end, we boarded a ferry that would take us to Üsküdar on the Asian side of the Bosphorus Strait.

The ferry afforded us a great view of the Galata Bridge (the seafood restaurants were all lit up at twilight), and Süleyman Mosque.

The Asian side is mostly residential. So, commuters cross to the European side each day to go to work. The ferry business is very important. In bad weather, the ferries don't run. And that means a nightmare commute across one of two bridges. The Bosphorus Bridge (shown above) is six lanes of car and bus traffic. Trucks must use the larger FSM bridge farther up the strait. The Turks are already working on a tunnel under the Bosphorus. Someday, a metro will connect Europe and Asia.

Also pictured here is a tanker vessel. Navigating the Bosphorus Strait is no joke. Bridges, narrow widths, sharp turns, two different currents (southbound freshwater at the surface and northbound saltwater below), and an enormous amount of boat traffic have all been factors for accidents caused by unfamiliar (often foreign) captains. Now, only local pilots are allowed to operate tankers through the Bosphorus Strait.

Welcome to Asia. This side of Istanbul was less cosmopolitan but not less intriguing than the European side. Plus, there wasn't another tourist in sight. It was a good chance to get off the beaten path for a change.

Less than twenty-four hours ago, we were in Africa. Less than twenty-four minutes ago we were in Europe. We really are world travelers.

Üsküdar is right across the Bosphorus from the Dolmabahçe Palace we visited this morning.

Just across the street from the ferry dock was a mosque (Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, built for Süleyman's daughter). Its beautiful ablution fountain was in the middle of the street between two directions of traffic.

We didn't have anything on our agenda for the Asian side. We just wanted to poke around a bit and say we'd been to Asia. There was a grocery store just past the mosque, so we stopped in for a little shopping.

The store was small by American standards, but they had an excellent selection. We bought some bread and cheese for later. The locals probably thought we were nuts to take pictures of their store shelves.

Well, we've seen enough of Asia. Back on the ferry to Eminönü...

İstiklal

From Dolmabahçe Palace we headed back toward the tram stop. Across the street and down some stairs we found the entrance to the funicular. A funicular is a sort of tram/metro that takes you uphill.

The top of the hill is known as Taksim Square. This is the Republic Monument. It shows the two sides of Atatürk, father of modern Turkey. He was first a soldier fighting in the War for Independence, and then a statesmen. He revolutionized Turkey politically, economically, and socially. He is credited with making Turkey the thriving, modern, and tolerant nation it is today.

I wish I had a better picture of İstiklal ("Independence") Street. It was very hip and cosmopolitan. There were lots of neat shops and restaurants here.

We popped into a fast food joint for döner pittas. They start with a huge drum of meat and roast it on an upright rotisserie all day, and then they shave off pieces for your pitta. They also tuck in a few french fries, lettuce, tomatoes and a fantastic sauce. Yum!!

At the end of İstiklal Street, you have two choices. You can either take a different funicular down to the bottom of the hill, or you can walk and see the Galata Tower. As you can see, we walked.

The Galata Bridge spans the body of water known as the "Golden Horn". On each end, it's a double-decker. On top, fishermen, trams, and cars. On the bottom, seafood restaurants.

That's the New Mosque in the background.