Topkapi Palace was built by the Ottomans in the 15th century after they captured the city and served as their HQ for the next four hundred years as their empire rose, at one point stretching from Austria to Morocco to Iran, and as it fell, collapsing in the aftermath of World War One.
The grounds are huge and take up the tip of the peninsula that stretches into the Bosphorus. You can see it as the green area in the center of the map below. (Our hotel is basically at the southern tip of the land).
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Today the palace serves as urban green space and hosts two large museums. Here is one the gateways.
There were police with machine guns posted at the entrances. Here's my naive Canadian existence showing: this was the first time I'd seen this. I don't think I'd make it long in a totalitarian state. Walking by these guards I had a repressible but unmistakable urge to test them--make a sudden movement, shout a snarky comment, see if I could grab their gun, something like that. It just seems like overkill; why isn't a pistol enough? You need a friggin' Uzi to patrol a museum?
Upon further reflection, I've never lived in a country where a terrorist bombing is an everyday threat. Turkey has been fighting a prolonged war with Kurdish separtists in the south for 30 years, but a ceasefire broke down in 2003 and since then 246 Turks have been killed through bombings and ambushes. Bombs have been set off as far north as Ankara. Two months ago it seemed quite likely that Turkey was about to invade the northern Kurdish area of Iraq to go after the rebels--the Americans manage to persuade them otherwise, but war is still possible on the horizon.
So, I guess it's understandable to be a bit edgy about security.
I'm not sure if this is representative of the whole country, but Istanbul felt at times like being in a police state. I've never seen so many traffic cops, security guards, police officers and soldiers patrolling the streets. It could be that this was just because of the heavy tourism in the area, making it a juicy target for bombers. I have to say that their presence didn't make me feel any safer; many of them spent their time standing around gabbing away to each other and most of them looked quite unprofessional. I never felt like I could trust them.
Anyway, here I am with the founder of modern Turkey.
That's Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and it's possible his picture is in more places in Turkey than Kim Jong-Il's is in North Korea. For example, after landing at Kemal Ataturk Airport we bought our visas from customs officers standing in front of a large portrait of Ataturk and exchanged some Euros for Turkish liras, of which Ataturk's head is on every single note and coin.
Ataturk is the guy who decided Turkey should be a modern and secular state and many Turks are very happy about this. The military is probably a bit too happy--but more on that later.
Some views of the Bosphorus from Topkapi grounds: you can see why the place is popular as "Lover's Row". Every bench (literally) had a young couple holding hands and necking, and old ladies were walking around selling roses for a few coins.
Before going to the museum we decided to go to an underground cistern which I had read about and really wanted to see.
What is a cistern? Well, I'm glad you asked. Cisterns are reservoirs made to collect rain water to be used for either irrigation or cooking and cleaning. The Basilica Cistern in Istanbul is possibly the most famous one in the world. It was built a whopping 1400 years ago and is capable of holding 80,000 cubic meters of water.
In the 1980s it was made into a tourist attraction complete with boardwalks. With its moody lighting and ugly fish swimming around, it's a quite a creepy and transfixing place to be.
At the far end were two "Medusas", large faces carved into the columns.
One of the Medusa faces is upside down and the other is on its side; nobody knows the reason for this.
Bonus points if you can identify which of the figures below is an ancient greek goddess and which is a 22-year-old girl who refuses to take moving sidewalks in airports because "it feels weird when you get off".
Finally, back to the Topkapi to see the palace museum.
Hans had told me that the Topkapi museum was like a "Turkish Louvre", so I was excited to check it out. We were pretty soundly disappointed. The museum was not that interesting at all; mostly it was a bunch of buildings spaced far apart and largely empty inside. The only nice exhibit was of the Ottoman treasury, which showed off the intricate pottery and expensive jewellery they collected and bought from all around the world. Once you see a jewel-encrusted water flask, you realize that Muslims are just as capable of extravagant imperialism as any other culture!
Below is a gate at the Topkapi where I guess important stuff happened sometimes.
There were some nice views, at least. Below you can see part of the ancient wall that once surrounded the entire city. It's weird to think that it was built out of serious concern that the city could be under siege and captured one day (which it eventually was).
Leaving Topkapi with the Blue Mosque in the distance.
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