 |
| turkey |
| northwest - istanbul, gallipoli, troy |
| Istanbul, Constantinople, Istanbul, Constantinople! I loved it, the mosques, wide cobbled streets, parks and beautiful fountains, from the Grand Bazaar to Taksim square, turkish coffee and chay (tea) in cafes, nargile (water pipes), doner kebabs...Istanbul was great! I stayed in my friend's vacant apartment in the town of Bakirkoy, just a short 20 minute metro ride out of downtown. |
| Istanbul |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| (Above) The Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet was the masterwork of Ottoman architect Sedefkar Mehmet Aga. So named because of the interior blue roof tiles and filled with stained glass windows and lamps. Islam prohibits religious images of any kind, so the walls are covered in colourful cermaic tiles featuring plant motifs instead. (Below) The interior of the Blue Mosque. |
| (Above) The inner courtyard and front entrance of the Blue Mosque and (below) Sultanahmet Square with the Mosque in the background. |
| Aya Sofya, formerly Hagia Sofia, originally completed in 360 AD. It was once Christendom's largest church, and even served as a mosque for a short period of time. The golden tiled mosaics inside were stunning, the sheer size and height of the ceilings added a certain level of grandeur I had never experienced before. It was aweing! |
| A side entrance into the Blue Mosque. |
| (Above left and right, below left) Some of the wall and ceiling mosaics inside Aya Sofya. |
| (Above) A side entrance to a mosque and (below) an archway within Topkapi Palace. |
| (Above) The sprawling Topkapi Palace, home of the Ottoman Sultans for over 400 years contained many religious relics including the skull and right arm of St. John the Baptist, the beard hair and teeth of the Prophet Mohammed, Moses' cane and numerous enormous gold jewel-encrusted crowns and other jewellery. (Below left and right) Some of the beautiful ceramic tile work within Topkapi Palace. |
| Ancient writing carved in stone on the walls of the Palace. |
| A small tomb sits just outside the gates of the Palace. |
| (Above) A pool and fountain in a park within the Palace grounds and (right) the Hippodrome of Istanbul. This is where chariot races were held. It's now home to three ancient columns, one from Egypt is the 3500 year old Obelisk of Theodosius and just behind it is a spiral, bronze column brought from the Oracle of Delphi in Greece. |
| (Above) The Basilica Cistern is an underground water storage tank and the largest of hundreds in Istanbul, completed over 1500 years ago. It was used in the 1963 James Bond Film 'From Russia With Love'. It features a maze of 336 marble columns all over 8 metres high. Near the back, there are two curious columns. Both have Medusa heads as their base taken from an unknown source. Even stranger is the fact that both the heads were deliberately placed either on their side or upside down. |
| Clothes hanging to dry in the old town. |
| (Above) Pigeons in Taksim Square and (below) Istiklal Cadesi in the beautiful Old District near Taksim. |
| (Above) My Istanbul neigbor, Sinem, and her friend in front of Galata Tower. It was built in 1348 and used as a launching pad for the first ever manned flight, by Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi in the 17th century. He Jumped from the tower with artificial wings, flew across the water and to the slopes of Anatolia on the other side. (Left) Me and the view from Galata Tower over the Bosphorous towards Anatolia. |
| Turkish Coffee, thick, black and grainy. |
| The famous Kapali Carsi or Grand Bazaar of Istanbul is a twisting maze of spices, jewels, lamps, souvenirs, clothing and food, in fact anything you can imagine. |
| (Above) Colourful lamps and (right) spices. |
| One of the ubiquitous Turkish pretzel vendors. |
| Selling freshly caught fish by the Bosphorous. |
| A flag vendor touting his wares. |
| A huge Turkish flag prominently displayed above a book shop in Sultanahmet. |
| The mandatory foot-washing station outside of a mosque. |
| Pingeons outside Yeni Camii, the New Mosque, and the Egyptian Bazaar in the backgorund. |
| Gallipoli (Gelibolu) |
| Remember that boring Australian movie you had to sit through in Social Studies? The one with Mel Gibson where everyone dies at the end. Well I did...and I remembered it was called Gallipoli. That's about all I knew about this place before I came here. The facts are that, Gallipoli, part of the Dardanelles were always the first line of defence for Turkey. In World War I, the Allied forces wanted control of the Bosphorous in Turkey, the only ice-free waterway to Russia. Turkey wanted to remain neutral. They asked Britain for two warships in order to protect the waterway and paid for them in full. Britain failed to deliver the ships. Germany saw this as a chance to get Turkey on their side. They stepped in and gave Turkey two of their warships at no charge. The German soldiers on the ship, dressed up like Turkish soldiers and attacked a Russian village from Turkish waters. This started a confrontation and thousands of ANZAC (Australian and Kiwi) and British troops descended on Turkey. The Turks were better commanded, by General Kemal Attaturk (a Turkish national hero) and won the fight. Thousands of Allied troops were killed. And this is where it all happened, Gallipoli. Every year, on the 25th of April, thousands of Australians and Kiwis descend on this small town in memorial. There are numerous tributes in statue and plaque and a museum scattered all over the former battlefields as well as reconstructions of the trenches. |
 |
 |
 |
| The shores of the Dardanelles, where the Allied forces landed. |
| During intense fighting, an Allied soldier saw an injured Turkish soldier lying between the two trenches. He called for a cease-fire, walked out and carried the Turkish soldier to safety, returned to his own trench and they all began fighting again. It was acts like this that show how neither side really wanted to be fighting each other. They were all just following orders. |
| The Turkish memorial to the Turkish soldiers killed at Gallipoli. |
| Troy (Truva) |
| According to Homer's Iliad, the beautiful Helen of Troy (her face was said to be beautiful enough to "stop a 1000 ships") was abducted by Paris from her husband, the King of Sparta, Melanus. Paris took Helen to Troy and this sparked a bloody ten year battle that culminated in Odysseus of Sparta coming up with the idea to fill a giant wooden horse with soldiers for a surprise attack on Troy. You all know the story...you've all seen Brad Pitt as Achilles and Eric Bana as Hector...but is it true? No, probably not, but Troy did exist as a real city and the ruins of it lie close to the city of Chanakkale in Turkey. There's actually not much left to see, a few old walls and some columns. There's also a giant (and somewhat tacky) reconstruction of the infamous 'Trojan Horse' that you can climb inside. I went on an organized tour and the guide was very knowledgeable. He pointed out all the spots from the story/movie, where Achilles dragged Hector's body behind his chariot, where Achilles was shot with the arrow. The grave of Achilles even exists, a small unmarked mound on the horizon. |
 |
 |
 |
| There wasn't much more to see than what I have showed you here. Most of the treasures from an underground vault were carted off to Russia by an archeologist in the early 20th century. Turkey is currently trying to get them returned. |
 |
| Anita took this photo of me in the city of Cannakale, near Gallipoli. |
| ... |
 |
| Me mailmanning with the Trojan Horse at Troy. |