The Topkapi Palace and Aya Irene

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The Topkapi Palace and Aya Irene

Monk allocated the best part of today to explore the Topkapi Palace.

It's physically the largest site on the Istanbul itinerary. There's a great deal to see and it takes a long time to do it properly, made longer by the queues one has to join to see some of the exhibits.

The palace was the seat of government of the Ottoman Empire and the residence of its rulers. The architecure covers almost the entire span of the Ottoman Empire and the various buildings are now used as mini-exhibitions of aspects of the Empire.

Within the First Court area of the Palace is the church of Aya Irene, the Church of the Divine Peace. This was obviously not to be missed by Nellie and Monk. The original church was one of the oldest in Constantinople and excavations can be seen of the original building. Unfortunately, the existing church dating from the 6th century is almost always closed but it's a beautiful building from the outside.

For many, the main attractions are the exhibitions of Ottoman bling - displays of priceless pieces of gold, diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds and other precious and semi-precious stones set into all sorts of objects such as crowns, swords, daggers etc. There are also very interesting displays of clothing worn by the sultans over the centuries. Photography is banned so if you want to take away pictures of some of the fantastic exhibits, you'll have to buy them from the palace shop. Monk was disappointed that the kitchen area was closed which would have given an insight into the day-to-day lives of those who lived to serve the sultans.

Part of the palace is the famous Harem. Monk ran out of time and never got to see this section. If you really hanker to see this, it's probably best to go straight to it immediately after entering the palace and then investigate the rest of the palace later. This is because, firstly, the Harem closes earlier than the rest of the palace and, secondly, it's not really practical to come back to see just the Harem because you have to pay 20TL to enter the main palace and then an extra 15TL to enter the Harem. You can't come back later to see the Harem and pay 15TL - you effectively then have to pay 35TLs just to see the Harem.

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