Istanbul: Walking through Byzantium

Great Palace and Crusaders
You are sayin in the article that: "The Great Palace Mosaics. Byzantium had a Great Palace, like the Forbidden City in Beijing or Versailles in Paris. It was pretty much destroyed by the Ottomans, as they built their own huge palace. A few mosaics survived, however. These mosaics are from the 400s, when Byzantium (Constantinople) was the capital of the Roman empire." You are transmitting incorrect information here. This palace and Hippodrome was destroyed before Ottomans took the city by the 4th Crusaders at 1204. Hagia Sophia also was almost destroyed. Building has been demolished by the same Crusaders. Many valuable items, treasures of great Hagia Sophia have been taken to Rome and Venice by the Crusaders. Hagia Sophia neglected, palace and Hippodrome was in ruins when Ottomans started to live in this great city. Then Ottomans started to take care of Hagia Sophia. That's why we can see beautiful mosaics of Hagia Sophia and great dome. It's been always easy to sue Ottomans for everything happened bad and has been done by someone else like Crusaders. Turks always respected other Civilizations' values. You can see this fact every where in Anatolia and Europe.

Istanbul
Hello to all, Thanks for your history, descriptions, and especially the pictures. The art work is fabulous. That alone would make the trip worthwhile. Continue to enjoy. Everyone's hair is getting longer which means lots of time has elapsed. Love to all, Doris