| We spent four days in Istanbul before flying home. Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey, was an amazing major city to visit, uniquely located on the two continents of Europe and Asia. For 1000 years this city, then called Constantinople, had been the capital of the Byzantine Empire and one of the richest cities in Christendom. For the next 500 years this city became the capital of the Ottoman Empire. During our stay we visited the three main historical sites still standing from these two empires: Haghia Sophia (Ayasofya), the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque), and Topkapi Palace. Haghia Sophia, built in the 6th century, had reigned as the greatest church in Christendom until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Afterwards it was converted into a mosque, and in 1935 into a museum. The Blue Mosque, named for the blue Iznik tiles decorating its interior, was commissioned in the 17th century by Sultan Ahmet I and is the only mosque in Istanbul with six minarets. For 400 years, from the 15th to the 19th centuries, the Ottoman sultans ruled their empire from the Topkapi Palace. |
