Sunday sightseeing

Sunday 14th

The first place we visited was the Basilica Cistern- thanks for the tip Chiara - the main reason for heading there was to get out of the rain; the irony was not lost on me when I discovered it was raining inside the cistern also. It is an amazing place, however. Built by the Byzantine emperor, one Justinian the one and only as far as I can tell, the place is straight out of a level of Tomb Raider. It was all I could do to stop myself from leaping over the rails and running through the water looking for a medi-pack. To describe more generally: It was constructed around 532AD under the Basilica Stoa and functioned as a repository for fresh water for the royal palace. At some point in time it was closed down and forgotten by the general populous. The main entrance was sealed and it remained dormant apart from the occasional rumour of underground passages and fresh water springs that never depleted in the basement of certain houses in Sultanahmet. It finally was rediscovered by Petrus Gyllius in 1545, after taking interest in said rumours he unearthed the entrance and restored it. Even after this, it was not really seen as much more of a dumping ground by Istanbulian's; it was even used as a dumping ground corpses for a period. The cistern was finally renovated in this century into the moodily-lit, and mysterious cavern you can view today. It is a massive place - 65m x 143m in area. It is supported by 12 rows of 133 columns and used to hold 80,000 cubic metres of water. Fresh fısh even swım around the gantries and uplights. At the rear of the construction there are two Medusa heads, in the form of blocks, inserted into two columns. There are all sorts of legends surrounding them, basically though, I think they just looked cool and someone stuck them in for effect.

After this we headed straight over to visit the sublime Ayasofia; known also as Sofia Hagia in Greek, Sanctia Sophia in Roman times, and in English: The church of the divine and holy wisdom. It is quite simply breath-taking. Parts of it are over 1600 years old. I say parts because it has had many face-lifts over the years, and parts of itself rebuilt or restored from either war or natural disasters [incidentally again: Istanbul lies along the North-Antolian fault-line between the African and Eursasian tectonic plates. It has suffered a number of major earthquakes that have been well documented in history. The last major earthquake Turkey suffered was in Izmir, further south, in 1999]. If you see nothing else in Istanbul see Ayasofia. It is an architectural orgasm. It has been designed in such a way that as you walk in from the outer area you are exposed to a number of local domes, each larger than the last, each become visible as you walk into the hall - until finally you realise the sheer size and beauty of the building... and you are left simply speechless. It is said only the holy order could enter through the main door into the great domed inner area. I can see why. Once inside you generally spend a good hour walking around gobsmacked as you try to come to terms with it. You can ascend to the upper areas to marvel even more at the huge Islamic discs, relics to when Sultan Mehmet the conqueror converted the church into a mosque in 1453 after capturing the city. You can also see the paintings of the Seraphim at each main pillar, and beautiful ornate pictures of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Constantine. It is strange and somehow reassuring to see both religions juxtaposed equally throughout the museum. It was also still raining outside. Marcus and I got split up at some point in the museum so I headed over for a quick look at the Sultanahmet Camii aka the Blue Mosque. Again this is another beautiful work of art, built between 1609 - 1616. It is also still a functioning mosque. Although Istanbul has a very European feel to it, hearing the bewitching Adhan calling the muezzin - the faithful - to prayer always serves to remind me that I am somewhere very exotic. The mosque was beautiful and very similar to Ayasofia.


Marcus and I then spent then spent the rest of the day being fecking miserable as the rain did not let up until late into the night. I have a lovely photo but I can't upload it here. I'll edit this at a later date.