Αγία Σοφία - A visit to Aya Sofya a/k/a Hagia Sophia

Del, Claire, and Keelin in the vestibule of Aya Sofya--click to enlarge


Click to enlarge - Keelin and Jack in front of some excavated columns,
pediments, and other marbe artifacts from an earlier church on the
same site that was later destroyed

We took the train to Aya Sofya this morning to see the one-time patriarchal basilica that became a mosque later in life, and is now a museum and archaeological exhibit. It is most, and justly famous for its unbelievably massive dome, now considered the height of Byzantine architecture. It was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was the church of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the home of the Eastern Orthodox Church for almost 1000 years. It was built in the sixth century.

Later the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and plastered over most of the Catholic imagery (like a Fresco of Jesus with Justinian and Constantine) and added typical Moslem features like minarets and a mihrab (an alcove that points toward Mecca and may be there to help prayers to pray in the right direction). So the church has had many lives and religions and is a most interesting polyglot. It was the main mosque of Istanbul/Constantinople for hundreds of years and served as the model for other, later mosques. Like the one across the street--The Blue Mosque, about which more later.




Click to enlarge. Claire and Keelin by the "Stele of St Gregory Thaumaturgus" that is said to have magical powers. You put your thumb in the hole, turn 360 degrees, and if a drop of water falls on your thumb--well, you're in luck, Friendo.


Click to enlarge - The mihrab--an alcove that points toward Mecca that may be there to help prayers pray in the right direction [ed's note: totally Jack's speculation]

The partly destroyed, but still stunning mosaic fresco of Jesus with Constantine and Justinian at his sides. It was uncovered after being plastered over for centuries. This was amazing.

Click to enlarge -- Aya Sofya from the steps of the Blue Mosque (about which more later). I'm going to bed.
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The Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, and a boat ride on the Bosphorus Strait, separating Asia and Europe

...click photos to enlarge...

After a somewhat sleep-jangled start, we went out to breakfast at a restaurant four stories up, on a rooftop, with a view along both shores of the Bosphorus Strait. The food was good, and I especially liked the fresh French bread and fresh-squeezed sour cherry juice. Then, we went to visit the Spice Bazaar, the Grand Bazaar, and take a tourist boat, along with hundreds of Turks, around the Bosphorus Strait.

The spice bazaar, while still functioning as a local fulcrum for purchasing bulk goods, also clearly now caters to tourists, selling many goods no local could ever want, or need. The spices looked great!

On the whole, the merchants were no more aggressive than you see in any other market in Mexico, or even Seattle's public market. There were hundreds of spice merchants, but also many people selling soccer jerseys, chess sets, hookahs, fezes, etc.


The Spice Bazaar


Turkish Viagra for sale


Perfectly groomed mountains of spices

After our walk through the spice bazaar, we decided to take one of the many boat tours around the harbor and got on a boat the Turks were taking, avoiding the more expensive Euro-American tour. Shortly after boarding, Keelin read in her tour book that the boat ride was 8 hours long, and would involve a two hour captive stop at a restaurant! This boat did not even have a bathroom! After passing the bridge, and slowly turning around, we realized this would actually be a much shorter trip.

I could go on and on about this strait and its history of the strait, but if you're really interested, check out this footnote [1], a/k/a satellite data cluster.


Keelin on the tour boat


A view from the boat

A pasha's mansion on the Bosphorus

Twierdza Rumelli

The Bosphorus bridge between Asia and Europe

The strait in a satellite view


An old Pasha's mansion on the Strait

[1] From the Wikipedia: As the only passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the Bosporus has always been of great commercial and strategic importance. The Greek city-state of Athens in the 5th century BC, which was dependent on grain imports from Scythia, therefore maintained critical alliances with cities which controlled the straits, such as the Megarian colony Byzantium.

The strategic significance of the strait was one of the factors in the decision of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to found there in 330 AD his new capital, Constantinople, which came to be known as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. On May 29, 1453 it was conquered by the emerging Ottoman Empire. In fact, as the Ottoman Turks closed in on Constantinople, they constructed a fortification on each side of the strait, Anadoluhisarı (1393) and Rumelihisarı (1451). They later renamed the city Istanbul.

The strategic importance of the Bosporus remains high, and control over it has been an objective of a number of hostilities in modern history, notably the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, as well as of the attack of the Allied Powers on the Dardanelles in 1915 in the course of the First World War. Several international treaties have governed vessels using the waters, including the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits, signed in 1936. In the conferences during World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin openly requested the concession of Soviet military bases on the Turkish Straits, even though Turkey was not involved in the war. This incident, coupled with Stalin's demands for the restitution of the Turkish provinces of Kars, Artvin and Ardahan to the Soviet Union (which were lost by Turkey with the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) but were regained with the Treaty of Kars in 1921) was one of the main reasons why Turkey decided to give up its principle of neutrality in foreign affairs and join NATO in 1952. In more recent years, the Turkish Straits have become particularly important for the oil industry. Russian oil, from ports such as Novorossyisk, is exported by tankers to western Europe and the U.S. via the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits.

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