Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came early this year and I realize that there is much to be thankful. Now, you might be scratching your head thinking, he's a good 6 months early for that. Not So! This week I am in the beautiful land of Turkey. After arriving we explored our neighborhood, which is across from one of 4,000 beautiful Mosques. Then, we had a kabob dinner and tried to get some rest for the adventures that awaited us in the city the next day.

Bright and early we woke up and walked past Istanbul University and through the main streets of the city until we arrived at the site of the ancient Hippodrome. It was originally built by the Byzantine empire and then expanded by the Romans to hold, what has been said to be 100,000 people. The horseshoe shaped track was lined in the center by different monuments, often as prizes from the conquests of the empire. One of the monuments that still stands is the Obelisk of Thutmosis the 3rd (see below).During the Nika (Nike) revolt Justinian took advantage of the shape when the revolutionaries entered the hippodrome he had his guards stand that the exit and entrance and killed nearly 30,000 thus ending the revolt.

 Below is some of the tile work of the blue mosque. My camera doesn't do it any degree of justice and this is the best picture I got, hopefully some of the other ones will turn out better!

If you tilt your head you can see the Blue Mosque from the outside. Try and see if you can count all six minarets. This was a big controversy because only Mecca had a six minaret mosque at the time. So what did Sultanahmet do? He sent his architechts to build a seventh minaret in the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

This is Nathan and I (my Turkey roommate) outside of Hagia Sofia, we will go in later this week.

Welcome to the Basilica Cistern. This cistern used to hold A LOT of water, an estimated 2.8 milion cubit feet. It has also been host to the 1963 James Bond with Sean Connery. It reminded me of Phantom of the Opera!

 This church is called Hagia Irene. It was the place of the second of the seven eccumenical councils. Here the question was whether the decision of Nicea was correct that said the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were one. They upheld the decision at Nicea at decided that the Holy Ghost was also divine.

Topkaki palace was huge and there were a lot of places we couldn't take pictures, but this was some of the beautiful tile work that adorned some of the living quarters of the palace that was home to Sultans, could feed 4,000 people and overlooks the Bosphorous and Hagia Sofia. This tile also does more justice to the incredible Blue Mosque, which has over 20,000 of these on the first floor alone. 

The following pictures are from our river cruise on the Bosphorous. I don't remember any of the actual sites, I was too busy taking it all in. But I hope you will see some the beauty that is surrounding me here in Turkey. 

Enjoy!