Before we get too Greekified, lets go back and take a look at the 4th Great Architectural monument in that small area of Istanbul around Sultanahmet - The Hagia Sophia. Built around 400 or so AD under Emperor Constantine of the Eastern Roman Empire which became Byzantium, expanded under Emperor Justinian, - the spiritual heart of the Byzantine Empire until it was turned into a mosque under the Ottomans in 1453. From The outside standing next to the Blue Mosque it looks very Islamic with its minarets and multiple domes, once inside though it still remains very much a Byzantine Basilica at heart, especially since they have painstakingly removed the layers of plaster to reveal the incredible Byzantine mosaics once again. Once more we took an audio tour - had fun trying to find the numbers to plug in. What a way to finish up Istanbul, an incredible building.
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Ethiopian Rock Church
Showing posts with label Turkey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turkey. Show all posts
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Light Fetishes
I think its time I came out of the closet and told you..... oh this is so hard... well, you see.... the thing is...
I have a fetish for light fixtures. There I've said it!. Even though I really have no where to put them, especially now that i'm homeless, I cant resist looking round sparkly lighting stores. If I owned my own home I'd probably install some OTT candelabra type arrangements, as well as plenty of side lights, up lights and candlesticks. I do have a fair few of the latter.
One other thing.. I have a complete aversion to harsh overhead lighting, its mood lights all the way with me - so if i come round for tea and you've got one big bright centre light on i'll prob get a bit anxty. In hotels, the first thing i do after dumping bags and researching air con is to check out the lighting situation and see if its possible to have table lamps and bedside lamps instead of the main one,
So thats me and lights! - at the moment im in a cave house in Santorini with a huge array of variable lighting options so i am in lamp heaven. The pics here were inside the Grand bazarr in Istanbul.
The Basilica Cistern - Istanbul
Spooky and Surreal - The Basilica Cistern is the almost perfectly preserved Roman underground reservoir, where the water coming in from the aqeducts would have been deposited. The water was teeming with Coy Carp and I created a bit of a feeding frenzy when i crumbled a biscuit or two into the water.
These Two Medusa heads, one inverted and one on its side, with the weight of a column on top of them, would have been below water, I wonder how many people knew they were there.
The Blue Mosque
Built in the 17th Century, The Blue Mosque is so named due to its walls being covered in beautiful Iznik Tiles.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Islamic Art at the Topkapi Palace
Following our end of tour breakfast and before our rooms were ready at the hotel, Nat and I still bleary eyed from the train took ourselves off to the Topkapi palace, home of the Ottoman Sultans for over 400 years. We got the audio tour which has been a welcome addition to Turkish museum attractions and to my mind adds a lot to a visit to anywhere unless you have an excellent personal guide. I often cant be bothered to read all the English signs and its nice to have someone explain things to you, occasinaly you get bonus amusing musical introductions to each piece or mispronounced words to keep you entertained. Perhaps that should be a travel philosophy...yes...lets, i think thats um, Travel Philosophy Number 5 - Fork out the extra for the audio guide if there is one!. 5 Philosophies in all this travel, thats not much is it - I will have to get my thinking cap on,
Apart from the musuem collections in the Palace, containing all the treasures and some fantastic Sultans Kaftans which were perfectly preserved, the most interesting part of the palace was the Harem. A big labyrinth of rooms reserved for the wives and concubines, the entrance strictly guarded in both directions by the highly influential Black Chief Eunuchs. The only males allowed in there were the Sultan and his brothers and sons, the latter mostly being kept locked up in there both for their own protection and for the protection of the Sultan as everyone of them was essentially a threat to his power. Amongst the females the main power base was the Queen Mother and the Mother of the legitimate male heirs. It reminded me a lot of the descriptions of the Zenana in Indu Sundaresans novels of Mughal Indian court life and harem politics. Nat coincidentally had been reading a non-fiction account of a French woman who had wound up in the harem and ended up being the mother of a sultan and a powerful figure who brought a French influence to the court and told her story afterwards. Actually it was interesting to note that allot of the wives were abducted from the West, so there would have been few 100% Turkish Sultans.
I had cause to think of my Mother a fair amount walking round the palace - She used to be a ceramics teacher with a love of Islamic designs and in fact we very nearly had a holiday to Istanbul when I was in my teens and had a period of spending a week a year in a European city and taking day trips out. I would have liked her to see the beautiful Iznik tiles everywhere - Mum if your reading, I was thinking of you when i took those tile shots. I always remember her explaining to me that theres few depictions of people or animals in traditional Islamic art, as it was frowned upon to re create the image of something only God could. Hence the traditions for creating intricate patterns as the basis of their art instead. That said Nat did spot one or two animals depicted in the tiles, theres plenty of floral designs and they certainly did depict people in portraiture. The Sultans often had minatures of themselves.
I really love the Islamic style - its very tasteful and invokes a peaceful atmosphere with gentle arches and often water trickling from fountains. The detail on the walls and ceilings is stunning.
Apart from the musuem collections in the Palace, containing all the treasures and some fantastic Sultans Kaftans which were perfectly preserved, the most interesting part of the palace was the Harem. A big labyrinth of rooms reserved for the wives and concubines, the entrance strictly guarded in both directions by the highly influential Black Chief Eunuchs. The only males allowed in there were the Sultan and his brothers and sons, the latter mostly being kept locked up in there both for their own protection and for the protection of the Sultan as everyone of them was essentially a threat to his power. Amongst the females the main power base was the Queen Mother and the Mother of the legitimate male heirs. It reminded me a lot of the descriptions of the Zenana in Indu Sundaresans novels of Mughal Indian court life and harem politics. Nat coincidentally had been reading a non-fiction account of a French woman who had wound up in the harem and ended up being the mother of a sultan and a powerful figure who brought a French influence to the court and told her story afterwards. Actually it was interesting to note that allot of the wives were abducted from the West, so there would have been few 100% Turkish Sultans.
I had cause to think of my Mother a fair amount walking round the palace - She used to be a ceramics teacher with a love of Islamic designs and in fact we very nearly had a holiday to Istanbul when I was in my teens and had a period of spending a week a year in a European city and taking day trips out. I would have liked her to see the beautiful Iznik tiles everywhere - Mum if your reading, I was thinking of you when i took those tile shots. I always remember her explaining to me that theres few depictions of people or animals in traditional Islamic art, as it was frowned upon to re create the image of something only God could. Hence the traditions for creating intricate patterns as the basis of their art instead. That said Nat did spot one or two animals depicted in the tiles, theres plenty of floral designs and they certainly did depict people in portraiture. The Sultans often had minatures of themselves.
I really love the Islamic style - its very tasteful and invokes a peaceful atmosphere with gentle arches and often water trickling from fountains. The detail on the walls and ceilings is stunning.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Istanbul - Officially back in Europe
From Goreme, it was a 4 hour bus then a 9 hour night train to reach the Asian side of Istanbul, from there a short skip on a ferry over to the European side and a tram to the hotel.
What a trip - I worked out ive been travelling overland for 36 days - I allready crossed from the African continent to the Asian continent at Aquaba on the Red sea, and at Istanbul from Asia to Europe across the Bosphorus
The Train was a minor nightmare, not because of the standard but because of the company - one of our group picked that moment to get nasty and have a meaningless argument and tensions were running high in the big brother house - (as we've occasionally christened it as even after 3 days we were discussing who would get evicited if this were a show, and analysed those with alliances and those flying under the radar!). Basicaly the group had been kind of clinging on out of politeness the last week or so with some definate factions having formed, although we were aware of some bitching going on, but we had a complete implosion on the last day which was totally unnecessary and it lead to the most awkward final breafast and goodbye ever. Still, luckily we managed to catch up and spend a little more time with those we really wanted to.
So Istanbul - it was love at first sight - its a high impact city, dramaticaly located, with towering minarets, buildings climbing hillsides, surrounded by water. Very cosmopolitan, coming from Egypt and Syria and then easing back slightly into Western laid backness in Goreme, hitting Istanbul we totally came back to a world class modern city environment. A joy to travel around, thriving with smart (and very attractive!) people, trendy cafes and boutiuque shops. You realise how much you miss those things when you come back to them after a period of absence! Ill definately be back to see more of Turkey at some point. Photo wise I'll be posting a couple of slideshows in the next couple of days of the main sights.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Up Up and Away in my Beautiful Balloon
I had a previous opportunity to go ballooning in Luxor but was put off by the early start and cost, plus Symon's fear of heights meant he wouldnt have joined me. This one over Goreme was also an early start mind you and still a bit exey but I decided it was time to tick off this insane form of air-borne transport. What a blast - it was super-cool!. We loved every minute. To top it off there were about 60 other balloons in the sky with us - rather that detracting from the experience it actually added to it, it was totally bonkers and surreal being up in the air with all those other balloons, some up high, some down low, some scooting over or behind rock formations, we dipped down into valleys and climbed up out of them again. After an hour or so of thrills we gently touched down right onto the trailer and got out for champers and biccies. Awesome!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Turkey - Goreme
I'm writing this from fabulous Istanbul, lapping up the cosmopolitan atmosphere, but as usual Im several days behind in my blog updates what with needing to edit photos as well as find enough time somewhere with a decent internet connection to upload.
Turkey has been a great place to travel to and I will definately be returning at some point. Its a breath of fresh air after shiny suited Syria and its slightly backward ways in terms of ease of travel. This trip has not allowed time for seeing too much of it, it is definately kind of tagged on the end with some long travel days to hoon on up to Istanbul all the way from the Syrian border. The only stop of note that we made was Goreme in Cappadocia. Here we spent 2 and a half days and it proved to contain a couple of real highlights.
The area is famous for its unusual rock formations and 'fairy chimneys' with cave dwellings in them. I was well aware of the rock formations and to be honest, after a bit of a look around, its a bit like 'OK nice rocks, whats next then', in the wrong light it can look like a big slag heap rather that a spot of scenic beauty. What I wasnt prepared for, however, and what our tour leader managed to almost forget to tell us, was that the area is rammed full of rock cut churches and monastic cells dating from the 9th and 10th Centuries covered with beautifully painted frescoes. These were really stunning and Nat and I spent a good few hours wandering round the open air museum with our audio guides on taking it all in. To my mind it was an experience that easily rivals the Valley of the Kings for colourful rock painting and a much more pleasant experience. We were a bit stunned that we could almost have left the area without knowing what was a 20 minute walk from the hotel because the guide was too busy trying to push his carpet shop enterprise. Ah well..
On the travel day arriving into Goreme from Nidge, we saw another monastary and also spent some time exploring an underground city which stretched to 8 levels deep and 70 metres of tunnels rooms and passageways. Not much photographic potential down there but an interesting stop. Apparently used for local villagers to dissapear down into for months on end when invading hoardes would periodicaly come through the area. Thousands of people could live down there undetected.
We also took an easy hike through a river valley and had a great riverside lunch lounging in a cushioned pavillion.
Goreme was a really pleasant town in itself - we spied some great looking rock cut boutiquey hotels on our walk up to the sunset point, including This one. Wouldnt have minded an upgrade there!.
When photo browsing perhaps ponder over the question - was Southparks Jesus inspired by early Byzantine Christian art or is this just a bizarre coincidence!
Again, even from an agnostics point of view its impossible not to be awed by the stories depicted on these walls which have been passed down since the death of Jesus to the present time, you can imagine priests with followers sat around them as they pointed to the niches in the walls and ceilings and passed on the stories contained in them. As someone who has had no in depth religious study other than RE at school that I barely paid attention too, I was actually quite amazed at just how much of what was depicted had been drummed into me just from growing up in a Christian country. Once again, Im going to be on a mission to find some kind of Biblical mythbusters to find out more of whats historicaly documented of what actualy happened in these lands, how it affected people and how it spread from the holy land. It was interesting to be in an area where you really could see that disciples of Jesus could have spread the word up in this direction, its no further that we have travelled ourselves in the course of this trip. Other religious observations on this trip which for the last week or two has been through outposts of the Ottoman empire is the shared Old testament stories between Islam and Christianity.
One thing though... Mathew, Mark, Luke and John - what were their real names? Surely these are made up for the latin speaking mass market, these people lived in Palestine and Judea for goodness sake, where the King was called Herod etc etc, facts.... I need facts!
Its certainly the greatest story ever told. And that's not said with a note of sarcasm. I dont dispute that something of truly epic historical significance happened, and I find the spread of its message and its effect on world civilisation truly fascinating regardless of what you choose to believe as its true meaning. I have no judgements about peoples belief sytems even though I have not personaly been touched in the same way. Perhaps I will have an epiphany. One thing though - I dont think that its possible for there to be just one 'God' or true Religion. Surely it could not be right that you have the true faith just because you were lucky enough to grow up in the right part of the world in a Christain culture as opposed to in the East raised as a Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim, could they not all just be different paths to the same end? Hmmm...deep head scratchy moment, time to head out!
Turkey has been a great place to travel to and I will definately be returning at some point. Its a breath of fresh air after shiny suited Syria and its slightly backward ways in terms of ease of travel. This trip has not allowed time for seeing too much of it, it is definately kind of tagged on the end with some long travel days to hoon on up to Istanbul all the way from the Syrian border. The only stop of note that we made was Goreme in Cappadocia. Here we spent 2 and a half days and it proved to contain a couple of real highlights.
The area is famous for its unusual rock formations and 'fairy chimneys' with cave dwellings in them. I was well aware of the rock formations and to be honest, after a bit of a look around, its a bit like 'OK nice rocks, whats next then', in the wrong light it can look like a big slag heap rather that a spot of scenic beauty. What I wasnt prepared for, however, and what our tour leader managed to almost forget to tell us, was that the area is rammed full of rock cut churches and monastic cells dating from the 9th and 10th Centuries covered with beautifully painted frescoes. These were really stunning and Nat and I spent a good few hours wandering round the open air museum with our audio guides on taking it all in. To my mind it was an experience that easily rivals the Valley of the Kings for colourful rock painting and a much more pleasant experience. We were a bit stunned that we could almost have left the area without knowing what was a 20 minute walk from the hotel because the guide was too busy trying to push his carpet shop enterprise. Ah well..
On the travel day arriving into Goreme from Nidge, we saw another monastary and also spent some time exploring an underground city which stretched to 8 levels deep and 70 metres of tunnels rooms and passageways. Not much photographic potential down there but an interesting stop. Apparently used for local villagers to dissapear down into for months on end when invading hoardes would periodicaly come through the area. Thousands of people could live down there undetected.
We also took an easy hike through a river valley and had a great riverside lunch lounging in a cushioned pavillion.
Goreme was a really pleasant town in itself - we spied some great looking rock cut boutiquey hotels on our walk up to the sunset point, including This one. Wouldnt have minded an upgrade there!.
When photo browsing perhaps ponder over the question - was Southparks Jesus inspired by early Byzantine Christian art or is this just a bizarre coincidence!
Again, even from an agnostics point of view its impossible not to be awed by the stories depicted on these walls which have been passed down since the death of Jesus to the present time, you can imagine priests with followers sat around them as they pointed to the niches in the walls and ceilings and passed on the stories contained in them. As someone who has had no in depth religious study other than RE at school that I barely paid attention too, I was actually quite amazed at just how much of what was depicted had been drummed into me just from growing up in a Christian country. Once again, Im going to be on a mission to find some kind of Biblical mythbusters to find out more of whats historicaly documented of what actualy happened in these lands, how it affected people and how it spread from the holy land. It was interesting to be in an area where you really could see that disciples of Jesus could have spread the word up in this direction, its no further that we have travelled ourselves in the course of this trip. Other religious observations on this trip which for the last week or two has been through outposts of the Ottoman empire is the shared Old testament stories between Islam and Christianity.
One thing though... Mathew, Mark, Luke and John - what were their real names? Surely these are made up for the latin speaking mass market, these people lived in Palestine and Judea for goodness sake, where the King was called Herod etc etc, facts.... I need facts!
Its certainly the greatest story ever told. And that's not said with a note of sarcasm. I dont dispute that something of truly epic historical significance happened, and I find the spread of its message and its effect on world civilisation truly fascinating regardless of what you choose to believe as its true meaning. I have no judgements about peoples belief sytems even though I have not personaly been touched in the same way. Perhaps I will have an epiphany. One thing though - I dont think that its possible for there to be just one 'God' or true Religion. Surely it could not be right that you have the true faith just because you were lucky enough to grow up in the right part of the world in a Christain culture as opposed to in the East raised as a Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim, could they not all just be different paths to the same end? Hmmm...deep head scratchy moment, time to head out!
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Medinet Habu Temple, Luxor