digital art: Istanbul's Blue Mosque

click to enlarge the blue mosque
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Topkapi Palace and Mohammed's tooth, hair, sword, and footprint

Click to enlarge - one of the Sultan's elaborately decorated sitting rooms.

If you have to sit, this would be a fine place to do just that.

The gigantic cooking building - click to enlarge

Topkapi Palace and the Topkapi Palace Harem are where the Ottoman Sultans ruled their empire from this Istanbul, Turkey palace from the 15-19th centuries. And the Sultans lived large, believe me, along with their hundreds of servants, political aides and bureaucrats, and if you believe the various histories, somewhere between 4 and 300 wives and concubines. The palace was constructed to be self-contained, and insulate the Sultan from the riff-raff. And they did a pretty good job. It is really a self-contained city. One example is the cooking building. There were hundreds of cooks, bakers, dessert chefs, cheese and yoghurt makers. And they all lived in the multi-domed cooking building that even had its own mosque. They cooked for hundreds people each day and up to 10,000 people during feasts.

The palace is filled with all sorts of historical artifacts and the swag and booty of the Sultans. There is a vast collection of Ming and other dynasty china, cooking utensils, jewels, and swords and daggers. There is geometric hand made tile covering nearly every surface of the many buildings...at least the ones not covered in gold leaf and stained glass windows.

A view of the palace from our boat on the Bosphorus

Of greatest interest to me--and certainly to the many hundreds of Turks crowded into the rooms--are the holy relics from Mohammed's life. I can now say that I have seen Mohammed's hair, footprint, sword, and a tooth he broke in battle. The rooms containing these holy relics are filled with the sound of an imam constantly chanting the Quran. I thought it might be recorded, but on reflection, I believe there was an actual chanting Imam behind a curtain or in a booth somewhere.

A beautifully painted wall

Next to Mohammed's relics, the most notable goodies include the Topkapi Dagger, with a handle inlaid with three enormous emeralds, and the Spoonmaker's Diamond, which at 86 carats is actually the 5th largest diamond in the world. Ah, I've never been that impressed with diamonds, but this one is impressive in size at least.

Artifacts in the second courtyard of the palace

We probably only saw 1/4 of the palace and exhibits before we began achieving burnout from all the walking and the heat.

The street cats of Istanbul

After the churches, palaces, museums, and mosques, what I've loved most about Istanbul is the street life. The smells of food cooking, charcoal, oranges and cherries being squeezed; the sights of the thousands of people in all versions of dress, from extreme fundamental clothing to western dress, punk clothes, sports jerseys, and the more laic local clothing like beige trousers and vests, modest dresses and scarves; the cars inching their way along the cobblestone streets; and, of course, the sounds of prayers being called at the mosques, and the music of the many street musicians and groups in our musical neighborhood...it all rolls up to an incredible and powerful and breathtaking sweep of life. And life in the big city here, at least, is very good.

click the cats to enlarge

Somehow this enormous metropolis has managed to remain all too human. In all the time I've been here, I've yet to see an angry word or any contention of any kind on the streets. The only honking of cars is a quick beep to let the pedestrians know to move over. When the car passes, you go back on the street, since the sidewalks are always filled with cafes, people talking, cats, vendors, and merch. carts. You constantly shuffle between the streets and steps and the sidewalk.

The streets are amazing, vital and inspiring. And the people walking the streets are almost all talking and seem in great spirits.

And then, there are the cats. There are street cats everywhere here, and people treat them with great love. You see people feed them and there are bowls of water along almost any street. People (and us too) often bend down to pat a cat sleeping on a stoop or in a planter, or on the sidewalk. They range from well-cared for and well-fed to not quite feral; but even the lean scraggly ones seem collectively cared for. How sweet it is to see that.
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