2009 - FIP Istanbul: Day 14: Mon 14 Sep

We did the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topaki Palace Museum today.

Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultan Ahmet Camii), also known as the Blue Mosque, is a historic mosque. It is a still functioning mosque and also attracts large numbers of tourist visitors. It was constructed between 1609 and 1616. Hand-painted blue tiles adorn the mosque’s interior walls, and at night the mosque is bathed in blue as lights frame the mosque’s five main domes, six minarets and eight secondary domes. It sits next to the Hagia Sophia, another popular tourist site. At its lower levels and at every pier, the interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade İznik style ceramic tiles, in more than fifty different tulip designs. The tiles at lower levels are traditional in design, while at gallery level their design becomes flamboyant with representations of flowers, fruit and cypresses. The upper levels of the interior are dominated by blue paint. More than 200 stained glass windows with intricate designs admit natural light, today assisted by chandeliers. On the chandeliers, ostrich eggs are found that were meant to avoid cobwebs inside the mosque by repelling spiders. The floors are covered with carpets, which are donated by the faithful and are regularly replaced as they wear out.

Hagia Sophia, constructed between AD532-537, is the former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, later an Ottoman imperial house and now a museum. It is famous for its large dome. It was the world's largest building and an engineering marvel of its time. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture. The Hagia Sophia is of masonry construction. The mortar joints, 1.5 times the width of each brick, are composed of a combination of sand and minute ceramic pieces distributed evenly throughout the mortar joints. This combination of sand and ceramic pieces could be considered the contemporaneous equivalent of modern concrete. It has been an Eastern Orthodox cathedral, a Roman Catholic cathedral, an Ottoman mosque, and is now a secularised museum. Before the Blue Mosque was built, Hagia Sophia was Istanbul's principal mosque.

The Topkapı Palace (Turkish: Topkapı Sarayı; meaning Cannon Gate Palace) is a large museum. In the 15th and 16th centuries it served as the main residence and administrative headquarters of the Ottoman sultans. Construction began in 1459, six years after the conquest of Constantinople. Topkapı was originally called the New Palace to distinguish it from the Old Palace. The palace complex consists of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings. Female members of the Sultan's family lived in the harem, and leading state officials, including the Grand Vizier, held meetings in the Imperial Council building. After the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, a government decree dated April 3, 1924 transformed Topkapı into a museum. Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism now administers the Topkapı Palace Museum. The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, but only the most important are accessible and the museum collection includes Ottoman clothing, weapons, armour, miniatures, religious relics, and illuminated manuscripts. The Topkapı Palace forms a part the Historic Areas of Istanbul, a group of sites in Istanbul that UNESCO recognised as a World heritage Site in 1985.