ISTANBUL: RANDOM PICTURES FROM AN AWE-INSPIRING VACATION

It's been several weeks since I've posted. I'd been intending to post no less often than every two weeks, and I'd pretty much gotten into a groove. But then came the hustle and bustle of preparing for our trip to Istanbul, and then actually spending almost a week there, and then decompressing in Quarante. Deep breath. I'm back.

I will post a bit of a travelogue in a week or two. Nothing very daring or exotic. Just five nights within 100 meters of the Blue Mosque in view out of one window and Hagea Sofia out of another. 

















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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 4, 2024 at 2:58 AM

    Thank you for the gorgeous photos. I’d love to hear the story of the upside-down head - which appears to be an old capital that got downgraded to a base.
    Jacques D’Auteuil

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    1. IraNovember 4, 2024 at 1:30 PM

      Thanks for the kind words. I can't speak to that specific piece, but many of the columns and capitals in the Cistern and elsewhere in Istanbul were repurposed from Egyptian, Greek, and Roman architecture that came under the control of the Ottomans whose empire extended from North Africa around the Mediterranean and up into Eastern Europe. Just like the British grabbed stuff from other cultures and brought it into their museums, the Ottomans were not shy about appropriating stuff from other cultures simply because they could.

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