I had a short one day visit in Istanbul..

Amazing Istanbul – History around every corner Part 1

I had visited Istanbul back in 2010 when I was doing a bit of a tour around the Eastern Mediterranean and spent some time there, so this was a short stop in the city to reacquaint myself and revisit a few sites I had seen and maybe some new ones I’d missed.

For a start Istanbul with it’s population of 14 million people is the largest urban agglomeration in Europe, 2nd largest in the Middle East, the third largest city in the world as well as straddling the meeting point of Europe and Asia. In other words it’s a happening place.

If you love history (which I do) Istanbul is an extra amazing place. Founded around 660 BC it was originally called Byzantium and since then it has had a long and notable (and bloody) place in the annals of history through several empires and religions all the way up to the 20th century.

This has included being renamed Constantinople in 330 AD by the Roman emperor Constantine and being the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the capital of the Byzantine Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the capital of the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and after a siege and its eventual fall to the Ottomans, the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1453 to 1922.

It has also played a major role in the Christian religion through the Roman and Byzantine Empire phases and then became a centre of the Islamic religion during the Ottoman Empire when it was renamed Istanbul.

I flew into the city on a cheap business class airfare I was able to work out and on arriving found a massive queue to get through immigration, several planes must have just landed so it was looking like being quite a wait. First thing I needed to do was to get a visa on arrival (like visitors from many countries) to enter Turkey and so I walked up to the counter and the first surprise was that instead of the 15 Euros it had cost me back in 2010 it was now 45 Euros or 60 US dollars (I ended up paying in USD) which was a bit of a steep increase.

(Note: From the 17 April 2014 the visa on arrival system is being phased out and an e-Visa system implemented where you need to log on at http://www.evisa.gov.tr, provide the information, make the payment and download the e-Visa.)

As I had only bought a US$20 note with me I needed to find somewhere to get some foreign currency and there didn’t seem to be any bank ATMs in the arrival area so I had to think up a plan B.

Because of a trick that I had used when booking the flights from Jakarta to Istanbul I was able to access the Turkish Airlines CIP Business lounge at Istanbul airport which was pretty amazing, and so I was able to head through into another part of the airport and relax and get something to eat and drink there while I let the queues shorten a bit, as well as get out sufficient US dollars to pay for my entry.

When I finally went back to the arrivals area it took me only a few minutes to get the visa and to get processed through into Turkey. At the lounge I was able to access some computers and work out what was going to be the cheapest way to get to my hotel in Sultanahmet, and so was able to head straight out of the airport to the metro station.

I have to say I have used quite a few metro systems around the world and this one had to rank down the bottom in terms of being able to work out what was needed to get a ticket. Eventually after asking an attendant I put 10 Turkish Lira in (about A$3) and out popped a card that I would need to catch the metro to a stop and then transfer to the tram to take me to Sultanahmet. As it was starting to get towards evening it made it a little easier that I was roughly familiar with this area even though on my previous trip to Istanbul I had stayed around Taksim.

After getting to the boutique hotel (boutique could be translated as smallish but sufficient) I stowed my gear and went straight out to the Sultanahmet area which has a beautiful fountain with the Hagia Sophia Mosque/Museum on one side and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (or Blue Mosque) on the other as I wanted to get some nice night shots of these.

After having a bit more of a look around the area it was time to head back to the hotel and settle in for the night and work out the plan for the next day.

Next morning the sunrise call to prayers ensured I was awake nice and early and so after leaving the hotel the first cab off the rank was to go in and see the Hagia Sophia Mosque/Museum. This is an amazing building with an amazing past. Built by Emperor Justinian I in 543 it remained the largest cathedral in the world for almost a 1,000 years. In 1453, when the city was conquered by the Ottomans, because of the cities refusal to surrender, it was turned into an imperial mosque.

The current building is actually built over two earlier churches which were both destroyed by rioters, but the Hagia Sophia has stood the test of time, despite being damaged in several earthquakes and requiring several restorations. In 1935 the first President of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, had the mosque transformed into a museum and it continues to be so today.

After this I crossed Sultanahmet Park and visited the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, or as it is commonly referred to the Blue Mosque because of the colour of the tiles on the walls of its interior.

The mosque, finished in 1616, is considered to be the last great mosque of the Classical Period and was built by Ahmed I after a war with the Persian Empire. It certainly is an amazing and beautiful building (Note: As with all mosques you have to take off your shoes and you need to be wearing modest clothing, although coverings are available in the visitors entry area for those not properly attired).

http://lifestobelived.com/2014/06/06...corner-part-1/