Topkapi Palace

The historical home of the Sultans who ruled the Ottoman Empire was the Topkapi Palace.  Eventually the Sultans moved to swankier digs with better fortifications and the Palace was converted for use as government offices.  Later, the government offices were moved and the palace became a museum.  Some time after that, Anne and Mark decided to visit it.

As is their customary practice, Anne and Mark toured the Palace in pretty much the reverse order that the tour guides suggests.  It's kind of what Anne and Mark do.  So, the first place they went was the last place on the tour - the home of the Sultan's Harem.

'Harem' is a term that is used to refer to a private place for a group of women to stay secluded from men and most of society, as well as to refer to the group of women itself.  Back in the days of the Sultan, women from throughout the empire were brought to live in the Harem at Topkapi Palace with the Sultan, his wife and their family.  It was probably pretty awkward for everyone involved.

As Anne and Mark toured through the Harem area of the palace, they determined that the primary activity of the women who lived there was to decorate it.  Every room was extravagantly decorated and had some type of beautiful and comfy looking furniture.

Not bad for a guest room

The mannequins are added in case you are unable to visualize what this table would look like with three women seated around it.

In other parts of the palace, there were many artifacts that Anne and Mark stopped to view.  The treasury held huge diamonds, emeralds, the Topkapi dagger and a wide assortment of gold items, as well as silken robes and thrones belonging to Sultans centuries ago.  This was quite interesting, but no photos were allowed, so there are no photos here.  

Anne and Mark ran across a sundial which was (obviously) outside, so we can post a photo of it.

Sundial rendered useless by cloud cover (also, rendered obsolete by about a million easier and more convenient ways to determine the time - even at night!).

After visiting the treasury and the sun dial, Anne and Mark visited another building where photos were not allowed - but we really wish that they were.

In one room of this building was an imam who was reading passages from the Koran.  According to accepted tradition, someone had been in that room reciting from the Koran, non-stop, for the past 500 years.  Obviously, it was not the same guy the whole time, but even with tag-team shifts, this is quite an impressive feat.  As Anne and Mark walked through the exhibits, they wandered into the room where the imam was actually sitting (Anne and Mark had heard the recitation all day as it was piped through a public address system, but did not know that the guy speaking was actually on the premises and part of the tour).  Once in the room with the man, Anne and Mark stopped to figure out what was going on.  Why was this man on display?  Ok, read the sign... reading passages... 500 years ... non-stop.  Huh.  Very interesting.

No sooner had Anne and Mark digested this information than the imam's head tilted forward to rest on his hands.  He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.  He rotated his head from side to side to stretch his neck, replaced his glasses, and then rubbed the muscles in his cheeks and neck.  Anne and Mark turned to look at one another.  The entire time he was doing these things, they realized, he had stopped reciting.  Did this guy just break the 500 year streak at the exact moment that Anne and Mark entered his presence?  Uh Oh.  If this were the case, it would probably not be good news for Anne and Mark.  This has the makings of an international incident.

So, ever graceful under pressure, Anne and Mark reacted quickly to extricate themselves from the situation. Anne and Mark are proud to report that after making this realization about the sleepy/lazy reciter, they quickly darted into the next room.  Brave?  No.  Effective?  Yes.  Let's call that a win.

Having ducked into the next room mostly "for cover," Anne and Mark had low expectations for what they might find in it.  They were almost immediately blown away.  This room contained actual historical relics - really, really hard to find historical relics.  A footprint of the prophet Mohammed.  Very impressive.  A sword used by a companion of Mohammed.  Wow.  The staff used by Moses.

Wait - what was that last one?  The staff used by Moses?  Moses who?  Moses Malone?  No?  You mean THE Moses?  Moses as in Charlton Heston - that Moses?  And what staff are we talking about?  The staff used to split the Red Sea?  Yep.  According to the display, it was the actual staff used by Moses in "Operation: Put Egypt in the Rearview."  As mentioned earlier, no photos were allowed, but Anne and Mark can report that the staff was in remarkably good shape given its age.  Anne and Mark think that the wood finish on it probably helped it survive over time.

The palace was not all Harems and staffs of Moses -  it also had some areas that were less fun to visit.  Less fun not because there was something wrong with them, but more because of their names.  For example, the Courtyard of the Eunuchs.

Anne is standing in the Courtyard of the Eunuchs in the photo above.  Now, don't get us wrong, it is a lovely courtyard.  Mosaics on the ground, decorated windows on the apartments overlooking the courtyard, beautifully painted mosaics on the walls: all key ingredients for a very nice courtyard.  So, why not just call it "The Courtyard"?  Or, if necessary, "Courtyard #2" or whatever.  "Courtyard of the Eunuchs" just feels like.... feels like something important is missing.

So that's courtyards, but the bad naming was not limited to courtyards.  An example of a poorly named beautiful room is shown in the photo:

No thanks, I do not even want to know what the art work in this room looks like.

Anne and Mark assume it is a beautiful room.  Frankly, they saw the title and decided to cut this off of the tour.

All in all it was a beautiful palace and Anne and Mark had a great time visiting Topkapi.