Last day in Istanbul 😢

Off for another early Viking tour; this time to Topkapi Palace. It's good we've been going early as we miss a lot of crowds (and being in the off-season doesn't hurt).

Last history lesson for this trip:
- Istanbul is a new name (1930s) and means "to go to downtown," named by Ataturk who took over after WWI.
- Turkey has always spoken Turkish but they used to write Arabic until the country's founder, Ataturk, changed it to Latin letters. Turks don't use Arabic except for religious purposes.
-  Ataturk (from Thessaloniki when it was an Ottoman vassal) reforms - abolished caliphate, sultanate, changed dress code to be more modern (lose the fez and black burkas), alphabet (but with 29 letters), added surnames for people.
- Saw 14 miles of Roman walls, facing the sea (and protecting Topkapi); longest second only to Great Wall.
- Topkapi means "cannon gate" palace.
- Topkapi was made into a museum in 1924 by Ataturk after dissolution of the monarchy in 1923.
-  Surveyed by British to be most beautiful palace in the world (I didn't check that, but it was very beautiful.)
-  Mehmet, 7th sultan, finally conquered Constantinople in 1453 (he converted Hagia Sofia) and built Topkapi on top of a Roman acropolis, reusing Roman columns.
-  Sultans were in power for 620 years, from 1299 to 1923, 36 sultans.
-  Osman I was the first, from which came name of Ottoman Empire; he came from Asia.
-  Topkapi used to cover 175 acres, now 17.
-  At the height of the empire was Sultan Suleiman where they were on 3 continents.
-  The downfall came through normal domestic problems - late 19th century - "sick man of Europe."
-  Balkan war was the start of heavy rebelliousness against empire; Greece was the first of the countries to gain independence and then it cascaded.
-  After WWI they lost 2/3 of territories; Ataturk exiled the sultan family to Paris and they haven't let them back in, Osmanoğlu is their current surname.
-  Harem (pronounced hareem - means forbidden) life - only for the Sultan; women.were brought from non-Muslim places when 10-15 to be trained, not necessarily to be the sultan's wife, only the beautiful and smart ones would be introduced. Usually more than 700.women, only 3-4 wives, rest were servants or concubines (once they birthed a son they became a wife and got a private apartment), daughters would marry ministers - 2 strikes and then you're out of you only birthed girls.
-  Crown princes were sent to different parts of empire to help rule; smartest and best relationship with sultan (dad) might become sultan, not necessarily the oldest, and they might kill competitive siblings
-  Mehmed who built Blue Mosque started imprisoning the crown princes (opulently)  instead of killing them. He conquered Istanbul at 21.
-  2 types of eunuchs - black and white - and the black ones served the harem, most from Sudan, about 150.
-  So much blue tile! Very reminiscent of azulejos in Portugal, but Portugal never fell to the Ottomans. The Imperial Hall had Delft tiles and all of them originated from China.
-  And there were so many associations with Bible stories that related to how the Sultans lived: Nehemiah, a wine taster; Esther; urns like what Jesus would have turned water to wine.
-  Spoonmakers diamond - 17th century 86 carat diamond, called such because supposedly a spoon maker found it and didn't know what he had, so he sold it in the Grand Bazaar for spoons, then the Sultan heard about it. In addition to a boatload of other gems!

There was a separate relic area (the guide didn't tell us about it) where they had a bunch of improbable relics, which just goes to show you that even the Muslims fall for that stuff: staff of prophet Moses, plus footprint and cardigan and letters and tooth and sandals of Mohammed, John the Baptist arm and skull bone, pot belonging to Abraham, sword of David.

After lunch at a local place, Wendy took the Metro to the Spice market - dangerous for shopping but not for anything else - and bought some souvs. The walked across the bridge to Taxsim Square and a 1 mile pedestrian walk back to the hotel to pack.Read more