Our next stop was 2 full days in Istanbul.  

Approximately 30% of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) is in Europe (measured by land mass) and 70% is in Asia. The two sides are  separated by the Bosphorus Strait.  About 16 million people live in the city, and many commute between the two continents for work.  The city is a vibrant place where East meets West and old mixes with new.  

Greek settlers founded Istanbul in about 660 BC, and it became a vital trade hub due to its location. It is still vital today as the Bosphorus Strait is the only natural sea passage from the Black Sea to international waters.  

In 330 AD Emperor Constantine decided to move the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Istanbul.  By about 1453 the Ottoman empire gained control of Istanbul and it became a major Islamic imperial city.  Which it remained until the 1920s. 

In 1923 Mustafa Kemel Atuturk served as first president of the Republic of Turkey. He promptly began the process of secularizing and modernizing the Turkish state. Among other things, a 1928 Constitutional amendment removed the provision that stated that the “Religion of the State is Islam”. Currently the state neither officially recognizes nor promotes any religion. 

That brings us to the modern era in which the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, appears to be backsliding away from Western Liberalism and promoting Islam. 

All that said, Istanbul’s Old City is filled with some of the world’s most visited places, and they are located close enough to each other that you can see a lot if you are ready to walk.  

We saw the remains of the Roman Hippodrome (think chariot races), including an Egyptian obelisk moved in a complete piece from Egypt without damage.  And we visited the Basilica Cistern (from the 6th century), one of many underground cisterns built by those clever Romans to ensure water was available after the aqueducts delivered it to the city.  (Movie fans may recall the Basilica cistern from a James Bond movie or the Inferno movie based on the book by Dan Brown.)

We saw a LOT of mosques, including the very large and ornate ones – Hagia Sophia, the “Blue” Mosque and “Little Hagia Sophia.” 

Hearing the call to prayer several times a day in a place as populated as Istanbul is a pleasure (for some) – voices from minarets all over the city, calling the faithful to prayer.  

We also visited Topkapi Palace, home to various Ottoman sultans for hundreds of years – it is a stunning complex of buildings overlooking the Bosphorus Straits and the Sea of Marmara. 

Since there were large entourages with each sultan, and many visitors to the Palace, the buildings and grounds are enormous – a series of connected kitchens prepared thousands of meals each day, and the kitchen complex looks like a small village of its own.  

Next – more places in Greece! 

JFB and MAM