Royal History of Turkey

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Our second day in Istanbul was dedicated to exploring the 3 royal historical delights - Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and The Blue Mosque. All these 3 places were built and used by the Turkish Sultans a few centuries ago but even today, the splendor of the architecture and interior awe people; I wonder what they have been like in their original grandeur days!

These 3 places are situated very close to one another- a walking distance of a few hundred metres each. We were extremely lucky to have chosen a hotel just in the centre of this trio. We started the day early by going to the most majestic and most famous tourist spot of Turkey- Topkapi Palace. This palace was the royal residence of the Sultans and was built right beside the unimaginably blue sea. The main palace-which has many sub sections- is placed in the middle of rolling lush green lawns which ends along the deep blue sea. Once you step inside the first entrance of the palace gorunds, you can't help but pause for a little while just to admide the beautiful contrast of lush green against the saphire blue sea.

Though there were many tourists, as we were early, we didn'y have to wait long in the queue and that was a relief as the August morning was very hot. Europeans love such weather as they get a chance to uncover their legs and torso- but us being covered Muslims and coming form a hot country itself, we rather prefer much cooler weather.

Topkapi Palace is beautiful from inside. It's very well maintained and is well equipped to meet the needs of tourists- with guided tours, audio tours, brochures and appropriate markings. The palace is now segregated into display areas like - treasury area, jewellary are, carriage area, clothings area and definitely the Harem. We always like exploring on our own so we took an audio tour and started at the outermost section where the carriage are.

The details of stuff and the history of the palace is available in books and the net- I would only share my feelings in this blog. I loved seeing the grandeur of each and everything used by the sultans. The workmanship of every item on display awed me. The carriages they used had intriacate work on very polished wood, the velvet curtains were designed with gold thread and real jewels like rubies and emeralds. The clothes worn by the sultans were exquisite- the cut, the fabric, the fine thread works on them were spectacular. The thrones collection is one of a kind. Thrones made of tiger skin to emphasize on royalty, detailed traditional meena work done on thrones sent to Turkinsh sultans as gift from Indian Mughal emperor, thrones made of mother of pearl- and to top it all, a cradle made of pure gold for the newborns of the sultans blew my mind off. If only I could sit on any one of those to feel whether it really makes any difference in comfort by spending so much richness after a sitting instrument!

The jewellary section was equally grand with spectacular jewelalry and bejewelled draggers and gold utensils- but I had the time of my life looking at the 80 carat solitire diamond. It's needless to say that it was probably the most expensive thing I have seen in my life so far. If you love watches and have a thing for Rolex and Bretlinks, the clock room would make you wrinkle your nose at the next rolex you will look at. Well, it definitely would once you see grandfather clocks made from mother of pearl, excuisite jewel studded fancy watches with complex machine on display, and sophisticated gold watches that have compass, sundial, watch and what not options available in them.

The most priceless collection of this palace to me is in the Islamic relics section. Being the Sultans of the Muslim era, the Turkish Sultans had the fortune of keeping all available historical Islamic relics in their custody and I must say those are well preserved till date. We saw the ancient keys of the holy Kaa'ba, utensils used by some of the holy prophets of Islam. My mind was notwithin myself when I was looking at the swords and utensils used by the most important caliphs of Islam- Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali. I felt like I was in another world when I looked at the sword, bow and the holy beard of our Holy Prothet (SAW). These might just be some ancient stuff for most people, but for us Muslims, these seemingly broken,very ancient stuff are much more precious than the 80 carat diamond mentioned earlier. I would have traded a thousand 80 carat diamonds (if I ever had!!) in exchange of a single hair of beard of our holy Prophet (SAW)!! Anyways, these are wishful thoughts but in reality, I had never seen more precious broken things in my life before and probably never will.

In the entire palace, the harem attracted me the most. This was strictly the residential area of the Sultan, the queen mother and the many wives and mistresses of the sultan. I am sure there must have been abundance of luxury inside harem but I felt creepy inside that place. The only thing that I kept thinking was how the life of all those women must have been who lived there. They must have worn beautiful clothes, priceless jewellary, ate royal meals 3 times a day and had the service of slaves 24/7 BUT they could hardly go out of the confinements of those few rooms! Many of the women might have died there without ever stepping a feel out. Imagine a life full of beautiful clothes and expensive gems and no independance at all- you have to sleep with a very rich and powerful man whenever he wishes so and you have nothing else to do in your entire life. Makes me realize too much wealth could sometimes be a curse in life! Thus this place gave me goosebumps indeed.

Most of the day passed inside the Topkapi Museum. We visited Hagia Sophia and The Blue Mosque in the afternoon. Hagia Sophia is undoubtedly grand- from outside and inside, but it did not have much of an impact on me. The architecture and interior, like every other Turkish establishment was grand- but thats about it. Same goes with the Blue Mosque which has the original name of Sultan Ahmet Mosque- it'sjust a beautiful mosque from inside and outside.

My suggetsions to everyone who wants to spend sometime in Istanbul exploring history would be to spend most time inside Topkapi Museum. See every relic, read every caption, go through every room and try to feel the vibe of the relics- let them take you back to an era filled with grandeur; feel the power that resided inside that palace, realize the emptiness of the women of harem. Let the old walls and stone paths take you through a journey to the lives of Turkish royal family; go inside the queen mother and sultan's bedroom and admire the ceiling, the washbasins made of marble; let the fire places give you the feel of the cold that filled the stone rooms. Go back, go back a few centuries and live the life of a Turkish Sultan for a few good hours!

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