Blue Mosque

We encountered more highlights to finish the tour of Turkey today. First up was the Sultenahmet (otherwise known as the Blue Mosque). Built from 1609 to 1616, it represents the first time a mosque was ever built in a rectangular shape – and using architectural concepts not previously considered. The mosque has very elaborate tiles which our guide estimates are worth about $50k each – and there are 20,000 of them! Mind if we borrow a couple???

The mosque is near a park that used to be the hippodrome (where they had chariot races many years ago). Now it has four key monuments, notably an obelisk from Egypt that was erected in 390AD, an old bronze serpent statue and a couple of others.

Hagia Sophia was simply magnificent! This church/mosque (now a museum) was built in the 6^th century (and is still standing) after some riots in the hippodrome caused the previous place to burn down (for the second time!).

Inside Hagia Sophia Museum

There are some original foundations for the older churches in front of the museum – and then we went inside. The architecture, the sheer size, mosaics, decorations, winding ramps – they all just take your breath away. This will definitely rate in our top sites of Turkey (still to come).

Next, the Topkapi palace was on the agenda. This is the original palace of the sultans – an absolutely huge area, surrounded by gardens that once led down to the sea. There are three courtyards – you reach the third by going through the first two. There we saw some stunning relics (including an 86 carat diamond set amongst other fabulous diamonds in a teardrop setting – just magnificent); and some gold candle sticks that must have been 5 feet tall and were encrusted with diamonds and other precious stones. Unfortunately, they weren’t for sale. For the first time in our trip, we were surrounded by masses of people – it wasn’t that great. Guess we’ve been spoiled so far. We would hate to see this place in the high season…

Last stop for the day was at the Grand Bazaar.

Shoes at the Bazaar

What a great place – a maze of shops and restaurants, where you get to try out your bargaining skills. We had a lot of fun here. The photo of the embroidered boots is specially for Vicki!

Tonight is our last night, and we are heading out to a farewell dinner with most of our tour group. Tomorrow morning, we’ll get to squeeze in a bit more sightseeing before heading to the airport back to Dubai. May not get a blog done tomorrow – but as usual we’ll make up for it the next day.