The next morning, we headed to Istanbul’s underground cistern. This was also about a ten-minute walk from our hotel. The underground cistern really is pretty cool. It’s a huge underground cavern with Roman columns supporting the ceiling and sitting in a shallow pond/lake that used to provide water for the city. Apparently when the Ottomans took over in the 15th century, they didn’t allow the cistern’s water to be used since they believed only flowing water was healthy for human consumption. The cistern is pretty dark, which makes it seem a bit mysterious, but the Roman columns and the huge space are very impressive. Some of the huge columns also have the head of Medusa at their base. The Medusa’s head was used to ward off evil spirits, but apparently some of the city residents found the image too frightening, so the columns that had a Medusa head on them were used in the cistern, and then they were inverted, so the head could cause as little trouble as possible. Before we left, I noticed that the cistern also had a stage next to a snack area, and Taylan said that they occasionally have music performances here. He said the acoustics of the cistern were extremely good for classical music.
After our brief walk through the underground cistern, the group walked just across the street to the Hagia Sofia (pronounced “aya” or “eye-yuh”). The Hagia Sofia was an Orthodox Christian church until the Ottomans took over the city. It was apparently the seat of Christian Orthodoxy for many years, so it was a very important church. But then the Ottomans took over, and they turned the church into a mosque. At some point, the city decided to turn the Hagia Sofia into a museum, with most of its Christian decoration intact. It’s somewhat strange to see the combination of Christian and Muslim decoration: there are archangel mosaics and images of Jesus everywhere, but there is also a Muslim mihrab (focal point for prayer which points toward Mecca) and mimber (staircase from which the imam could deliver sermons). There are also four huge medallions or rondles with Arabic writing on them from the Quran. But the decoration in the Hagia Sofia is predominantly Christian, and it’s spectacular. (Ricky calls it “the crowning achievement of the Byzantine Empire” in his guidebook.) Elena and I spent a lot of time in, and a lot of digital camera space on, the interior of the Hagia Sofia (though it should be noted that the outside of the church is not particularly impressive). For sheer beauty, the Hagia Sofia museum is probably the best place to visit in Istanbul.
We took a little break again and Elena and I went to a different “point and shoot” restaurant for lunch. Then we met up with the group again, walked to a bus (chartered especially for our group; thanks, Ricky), and we rode to the Chora Church. We took a ride thorough a very commercial area, which appeared to be popular with the locals. One noteworthy aspect of this area was the number of bridal shops on it. We passed more than a dozen of these shops interspersed along this street. After fifteen minutes or so, we arrived at the Chora Church.
The Chora Church is tiny by comparison to the Hagia Sofia, but its decorations, though on a smaller scale, are beautiful; mosaic after mosaic of Christian imagery. After a brief talk from Taylan and a walk around the church at our leisure, the group met at a café across the street from the church. I have to say, this was a really nice café with a lot of outdoor seating. I would have been happy to hang out at this place for a while. (Right next to the café there was also a very good souvenir store, where Elena and I picked up a few items.) But Taylan cracked his metaphorical whip, and we were walking again. After walking five minutes from the Chora Church, we were in a poor but interesting neighborhood. Taylan took us to an area where we could see a lot of the old city wall. These were impressive ruins; Elena especially enjoyed seeing them considering their age and historical significance. Part of the wall surrounded a bus lot, where a few old buses were parked. Soon, during Taylan’s talk about the wall, a young entrepreneur (maybe in his late teens) said that on the other side of the wall where we were there were the ruins of an old palace. All we had to do was climb up his ladder to take a look at the old palace--for a small fee, of course. Well, our ever-intrepid tour guide decided to climb up and take a look, as well as a couple of the guys in our group. They reported that there really was nothing to see of the old palace, just an empty space, so we decided to pass on the entrepreneur’s offer. (Taylan later laughed that the young man thought he owned the palace because he owned the ladder to view it.)
We continued our walk through the neighborhood, seeing some of the locals walking around and many neighborhood houses, most of which were in pretty bad shape, but some of which were restored and looking quite good. We got the sense that this area could be gentrified in a few years and would provide a very different tourist experience. (I’m glad we were able to see it in its current scruffy but authentic state.) We also stopped at a small neighborhood church, where some of us lit candles, Taylan talked a bit about Orthodox Christianity in Istanbul, and we were able to sit and rest our bones for a while.
After a brief rest, it was back to hoofing it again. We came upon a huge open air market, like a farmers’ market, with tables and tables of massive and colorful vegetables, fruits, and fish, and some merchants were also selling other items, like clothing and trinkets. Elena bought a couple of persimmons and Taylan bought some tangerines that he passed out among the group. We continued our walk through the neighborhood, where the buildings got a bit larger and more impressive, though still pretty old and scruffy. We also took a brief look at the headquarters of the Istanbul Greek Orthodox Patriarchy. The compound, with some offices and a church attached, was not very impressive looking, but apparently the Istanbul Patriarchy is very important to the present day Greek Orthodox world, and it is sometimes used to settle disagreements among the other patriarchies.
We finally finished our very long walk through winding and hilly streets. After collapsing for an hour or so, the group reconvened to walk to a restaurant not far from the underground cistern, the appropriately named Medusa Restaurant. We had some very good, authentic Turkish cuisine, and Elena and I were finally sitting across from the couple we’d been separated from in the fish restaurant, and we had a good long conversation. Then back to the hotel to collapse from exhaustion.
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