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Published: April 8th 2014
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Bosphorus
Bosphorus, the strait that separates the western and the eastern part of Istanbul Seeing some nice historical places in Istanbul
A while ago we went to Istanbul over a weekend. Although we have been to Istanbul before we looked forward to this trip for two reasons:
1 On the agenda was to see a few sights that we have not seen in our previous visits
2 We were going there with a good friend whose company we knew we would enjoy.
First place we went to was the
Topkapi Palace, the home of the Ottoman Sultans for a period of 400 hundred years, a period that ended in the mid 19th century. Today Topkapi Palace is a museum and also a UNESCO world heritage site.
In the Topkapi Palace compound there are several different buildings. Some of the buildings were the private living quarters of the sultan, one part of the palace was set apart for his harem and other buildings were dedicated for official business purposes.
The Topkapi Palace is situated with a view over the Bosphorus, the strait that separates the western and the eastern part of Istanbul. The Bosphorus is also considered to form a border between Europe and Asia, one of few places where
Topkapi Palace
The main gate to the Topkapi Palace the border between the two continents is clearly defined and easily located.
So by crossing the Bosphorus you also cross from Asia to Europe or vice versa. You can cross the strait by ferry, by car or by metro. Istanbul is the only place in the world where there is a metro system that reaches two different continents. The line that crosses the Bosphorus has only recently been opened so we felt we had to try it. It didn't feel any special. We entered the train on one station and left the train a few minutes later. But it was fun to try it and it is one thing we can tick off from our bucket list. In Istanbul there is also a marathon race that goes across the Bosphorus, hence goes between two continents. We enjoy running so we guess we have to join that race one day...
One of the sights we wanted to see when we visited Istanbul was the
Maiden's Tower, a lighthouse on a small rock in the Bosphorus. There has been a lighthouse or construction of some kind on this rock for almost 1000 years and the current lighthouse traces its history back
Topkapi Palace
Topkapi Palace was the home of the Ottoman Sultans for a period of 400 hundred years to the 18th century. Fans of James Bond movies might remember Maiden's Tower from The World is not Enough where it was seen in a few shots.
One of the days when we were in Istanbul we came to an underground station at an underground line called
Tünel. Tünel is a very short underground line and it has only two stations. Today it is more important for historical reasons than for transportation. Tünel is according to Wikipedia the second-oldest subterranean urban rail line in the world. It is a very short ride to go from the lower station to the upper station and if you are reasonably fit the walk is not a problem.
Not far from the lower of the two stations at the Tünel underground line is a bridge called Galata Bridge. All day long hundreds of people, almost exclusively men, stand on the bridge trying to catch fish. Some of the fish they caught were pretty good looking but mostly they only caught pretty small ones.
One morning Emma and Hakan went to see the
Theodosius Cistern in city centre. Ake has seen that twice before so he wasn't very keen on seeing it a
Topkapi Palace
Pool and fountain third. Instead Ake went to see the
Valens Aqueduct, the aqueduct that many years ago used to supply water to the Theodosius Cistern. Just over one kilometre of the aqueduct remains, fortunately a very spectacular section with multiple high arches in two levels. Roman architecture when it is at its best. Valens Aqueduct is truly spectacular but still it doesn't seem to be a big tourist attraction.
If you find it strange that a Roman aqueduct can be found in Turkey, far away from Rome, it is not so. The Roman Empire was very strong in what today is Turkey. In fact there are more Roman ruins in Turkey than there are in Italy.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Just dropping by
I'll get to Turkey one day. From Australia it's a mission. Must be nice to be able to say "Think we'll visit Istanbul this weekend...or maybe..."