Miller round the world Day 22

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Up at 7. Buffet breakfast at the hotel. Good, but not quite as amazing as some that have preceded it. And I didn't know Turkish delight is a breakfast food! On the bus at 8:30 am. Our guide is Rashid, a professorial type with an encyclopedic knowledge of the city. The bus takes us along the Golden Horn, with water on one side and the old city walls on the other, until we reach the heart of the ancient city. 

There is so much history packed into this place that it is hard to keep the succession of conquerors and empires straight. But basically the area has been inhabited since 6000 BC. The city of Byzantium was founded in 660 BC. Greeks (both Atheneans and Spartans), Persians, Venitians, Genoese and others traded ownership of the city for several centuries until the Romans came along. Eventually the city became the capital of the eastern Roman Empire and was renamed Constantinople after Emperor Constantine. When Rome fell, it became the new Rome, although eventually it, too, fell to barbarians. The next arrival was the Ottoman Turks, under whom the city became the hub of a new long-lasting empire. Today Istanbul is the main city of Turkey in every way but politically; the country's capital is Ankara.

We start our walking tour of the old city in what used to be the Roman hippodrome but which is now a broad avenue. Several fascinating obelisks and monuments dot the area, including a massive column that was dragged here all the way from Egypt. We next visit the Mosque of Sultanahmet, built in the early 17th century, commonly known as the Blue Mosque because of the bluish tiles used in the interior. It is reputed to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and I certainly would not disagree. Not far from the mosque is the much older Church of St. Sophia, which was specifically built by Christian Roman emperors around 600 AD to be the largest, most impressive church in the world. It is massive and magnificent.
 
We then head towards Topkapi, the former palace of the Ottoman sultans. It spans a huge area and is composed of three courtyards: the outer is the administrative area, the middle the place of royalty, and the inner reserved for the sultan and his entourage. We pass through the first two courtyards and take our lunch at a restaurant incorporated into the walls. It features Turkish-style gyro meats (like shawarma). After lunch we enter the sultan's area, which is mostly inaccessible but does have an exhibit of the sultan's treasures, a variety of ceremonial and everyday objects encrusted with several fortunes' worth of emeralds, rubies and diamonds.
 
We walk back through the courtyards to close to our starting point. Rashid then takes us underground to one of the massive Roman cisterns where water from aqueducts was stored. It is an eery place indeed and very impressive considering it is thousands of years old. It was apparently used to film a scene in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love.
 
We return to the bus and head back to our hotel. On the way, we make a stop at what is known as the spice bazaar. What a cacophony of sight, sounds and smells! The shops tend to specialize in a particular type of goods: spices, jewelry, pottery, fish, foodstuffs, etc. I buy two different types of saffron for Violet, successfully bargaining the vendor down a bit, which is de rigueur.

Back at the hotel, Vioiet goes straight to bed, as the excessive walking today has done her in. At 8 pm, I am bused with a group to a Turkish night club, where we enjoy a nice dinner, anchored by an excellent grilled chicken fillet. There is a show of Turkish music and dance, obviously tailored to tourists. The highlight is the belly dancing; two beautiful girls in dazzlingly costumes who put on a great show and have everyone (well, ok, the men) mesmerized.

I'm back to the hotel about 11 pm. Another early start tomorrow.

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