Andrew Graham Dixon the Art of Eternity the Glory of Byzantium

This is farther east and still in Europe than I've ever been, outside of Moscow—farther than Bucharest, farther than Athens. A lot like both, though—even though the place has been Islamic for 5 hundred years, it nonetheless feels pretty Orthodox as well—you can't merely disappear that 1300 years of Christianity. What it mainly feels similar, though, is bustling. This is one decorated city. Thank god for the first-class tram system. I'm a large fan of cities with trams anyway, and this one is superb. Information technology makes Boston's system look like the medieval relic it actually is. And the traffic makes Boston's await positively intendance-free.

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Our hotel, though, is nicely located, a couple of blocks from but about everything, right in the middle of the Eminönü area. So we're a block from the train station, the relevant tram stop, the ferries up the Bosphoros and into the Golden Horn, and no more than than a 15 minute walk to the Hagia Sofia and the Topkapi Palace. Lots of good restaurants nearby as well, with the only affair lacking being a identify to become recent (ie since last Wed) English newspapers. Simply we're fully wired—isn't everyone these days, including what appears to be every resident of Istanbul, each and every one of whom apparently has a mobile telephone? Packing for trips these days has become an exercise in wire management—we have the ipad charger, the laptop charger, the charger for the telephone, which fortunately is the same every bit for my Blackberry from piece of work, the battery chargers for the 2 cameras, the little box for uploading photos from cameras and phones and ipads onto laptops…what could I perhaps have left off this list?

And, since it'southward Easter, I had to bring forth The Book of Common Prayer, to recoup for the fact that we haven't been to an Easter service for years, and hither we are, in a land where the Orthodox Easter won't come around until May. Plus we spent the entirety of Easter visiting mosques. These cultural markers practise mean something after all.

The mosques are quite cracking, and not quite what I expected, at least the larger ones. These are big palaces of calorie-free, really, designed to be as open and equally bright as possible. I'k however trying to sort out Islamic aesthetics, which I imagine will tell me why many of the interiors nosotros've seen—particularly at Topkapi—seem designed to not blend with each other—to just exist, equally Mrs W put it, bright and shiny, with no sense of overall room pattern. Well, that's probably merely us—and information technology certainly isn't a criticism that could exist made of the mosques that we've been in. These are large and airy, with high domes (everyone literally trying to outdo Hagia Sofia, apparently), lots of windows, and sublimely tasteful settings of verses from the Koran.

So far we've done most of the major mosques, including some designed by the master architect of mosques, Koka Mimar Sinan ("Great Architect Sinan"). Sinan was appointed Chief Majestic Architect by Suleyman and held the post for more one-half a century. His output was astonishing, including 81 large mosques, more than half of which were in Istanbul. The major ones are the Süleymaniye, probably the largest and best known of Istanbul's mosque complexes, and the Şehzade Camii (Camii is Turkish for mosque), which Suleyman had built in memory of his son, who died at 21. These are grand constructions. I would have to say that if I had a favourite, it was this one—the nicest residual of calorie-free and space of all of them. Only this is subjective, obviously.

They are also interesting socially. This is a patriarchal civilisation and religion, so no surprise that there is a separate prayer expanse for women. Yet, people are wandering around everywhere—except at our last mosque, where they asked visitors to stay in the back. But this wasn't the example at other mosques, and people were just wandering around at most of them. Men were praying, aye. But men were also chatting up a storm, talking on their mobiles, and taking pictures of each other. Families were sitting around talking—not loudly, but certainly not whispering either. Children were running around all over the place. Maybe it'south because it was Dominicus, and that's a social day—you meet the neighbours at the mosque, have a nice chat, and move on. Only what it about reminded me of is what medieval cathedrals were supposed to be like—large spaces where everyone got together regularly, and lots of stuff happened, not just services.

And Turkey is certainly a family place. There are kids everywhere. When nosotros were visiting Topkapi Palace on Friday, information technology seemed as if every school group in Istanbul was at that place equally well, not to mention about ten thousand mothers with strollers. What is lacking is lots of Disney stuff—nosotros haven't exactly been looking for information technology, just so far no kids in Piffling Princess outfits. However, there do seem to be LOTS of Burger Kings and McDonalds, which I suppose is inescapable these days. Still, plenty of skillful food pretty much everywhere. We've already had some excellent real meals, and some excellent low-cal fare from the kebab shop down the street. This a city with of 12 million people or whatever it is, so you can get pretty much whatever you desire here, so long as it's lamb. But not just the lamb—Turkish cuisine is full of basics and seeds, and not only do they spice everything up nicely, but it'south also good for you. Forget all that crap nearly the Mediterranean diet. It's what they swallow here that'due south good for you—olive oil, dates, figs, olives, and lots of seeds and basics. I could eat this stuff forever.

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Source: https://byzantineistanbul.blogspot.com/2013/

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