Istanbul/Constantinople

After yet another tiring journey on a night bus, we arrived in Istanbul yesterday! Since most of the hotels are in the Sultanahmet district, one of the very first things we got to see was the Hagia Sophia reaching up to heaven. It is unfortunately closed on Mondays, so we waited until today to pay a visit.



Our first big stop was the Blue Mosque, which is directly across from Hagia Sophia and adds to the overall monumental feeling of the area. The interior is plastered with tiles in blue with splashes of white and red. For once I didn't have to put on special clothes because my legs and arms were fully covered! We were permitted to chill out in the visitor section until prayer time, when the mosque is cleared of tourists.



Next we went to see the inside of a Byzantine water cistern, which was cool, damp, dark, and fascinating. The remaining water was populated by enormously fat fish, some so fat that their backs stuck up out of the shallow water to accommodate enormous bellies. There were also strange modern art exhibits interspersed throughout, which was a pretty neat idea. One area had hanging lights that made me feel like I was in Avatar with columns or something.



There were also a couple of totally awesome pillars depicting Medusa's head.



Today we went to a very impressive mosaic museum, where we got to see conservators working to clean off centuries worth of grime and restore the natural tile colors. Check out the color difference in this vicious claws:



The Byzantine mosaics on display here were absolutely phenomenal. They primarily consisted of images from nature, including beast hunts and various scenes of animals attacking each other. A monkey tried to catch birds from a tree, an old man milked a goat, and an elephant choked a lion, all in very vivid detail.



Finally we came to the big event of the day—Hagia Sophia. While the church usually generates rave reviews, Mark Twain called it "the rustiest old barn in heathendom" and commented that "the people who go into ecstasies over St. Sophia must surely get them out of the guidebook." The Emperor Justinian, on the other hand, was awed at the work he sponsored and commented, "Solomon, I have surpassed you!" This could either be a reference to the biblical Solomon or to Anicia Juliana, an aristocratic woman who was far from Justinian's number one fan. Before Hagia Sophia, the church she had built was the biggest one around and was a bit of a challenge to Justinian. It contains an inscription comparing Juliana to Solomon, and the church was based on the biblical descriptions of Solomon's temple. In the great church-off, however, Hagia Sophia definitely wins—while the dome in the Blue Mosque is supported by thick columns, the dome of Hagia Sophia floats effortlessly above the ground, creating a wide open space filled with warm light that reflects off of the windows lined with golden mosaic tiles.



Hagia Sophia was eventually converted to a mosque, and then to a museum, but there are still plenty of interesting mosaics scattered around the place. There are some fabulous depictions of famous Christians like Ignatius of Antioch and John Chrysostom, as well as Jesus, the Virgin, John the Baptist, and a number of emperors.



My favorite was a depiction of Justinian offering Hagia Sophia to the infant Christ, while Constantine the Great offers Constantinople itself. Mark Twain, I must respectfully disagree with you!



I ended my night with a whirling dervish show called "800 Years of Love," which sounds a bit odd but was a fun show. It lasted about an hour and started with a concert featuring traditional Sufi music. The guy playing some kind of autoharp was particularly talented, but he was also very short and needed a foot stand to rest his feet and keep his lap steady enough for the instrument! After some increasingly frenetic music, the dervishes finally appeared, looking very serious indeed except for one who seemed like he was about to start laughing at himself at any moment. After a ceremonial bow, they began to whirl, their skirts suddenly taking flight as they turned in tight circles, their arms reaching up into the air, fingers of the right hand curled upward and fingers of the left hand turned to the ground. Their faces were schooled into masks of cool politeness, their eyes most of the way closed. Were they really channeling the divine?