[Istanbul]: Sultanahmet Square

Hi friends!

I invite everyone to a Cup of delicious Turkish tea! Today we will take a walk around Istanbul, maybe find something interesting. I never know what I'll write about. Just browsing photos from travel or just made in his hometown, then the lines fall into the story.

Turkish tea is very tasty. But I drink it only in Turkey. In Odessa I bring the best Turkish black tea, but I do not drink. I need an atmosphere, and it can only be in Turkey. Seagulls, Bosphorus, Turkish language and flavor-that's where I drink black tea. Pets I'd love to drink Turkish tea in Odessa. Moreover, Turkish double teapot I had been brought home. A Cup of tea in the photo is MADO cafe in Uskudar near the Bosphorus. The view from the 4th floor is very beautiful!

From Uskudar and the Asian part of Istanbul we will transfer to Fatih district, where the most important sights of Istanbul are located. I'll start the story with a magnificent gazebo. It always gives me a lot of impressions. Beautiful architecture and shapes, colors. There is such beauty on Sultanahmet square. Fountain-gazebo stands out on the Sultanahmet square. It's impossible to pass by.

German fountain (Alman Cesmesi) was given to the Ottoman Empire, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II and became a symbol of friendship between the two States.

The ruins of old Constantinople can be found everywhere. It was nice to see that the old protective wall in Istanbul began to be restored in the area of Ataturk airport. These are the remains of ruins near Sultanahmet square

Sultanahmet Square

Here is the Palace of the famous vizier of the Ottoman Empire Ibrahim Pasha. Suleiman the Great once gave this Seljuk-style Palace to his friend and son-in-law. Too bad the friendship didn't end well... The Ottoman Empire had cruel rules and laws...

The obelisk of Theodosius or Egyptian obelisk adorns Sultanahmet square. It is worth noting that earlier in Constantinople there was a famous racetrack.

The obelisk of Theodosius is a tetrahedral monolith of pink granite. The obelisk is very well preserved, as granite is very strong and durable material. Initially, the obelisk was located in the Karnak temple in Egypt, where it was established in 1460 BC in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the reign of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III and had almost 38 — meter height.

By order of the Emperor Theodosius the Great in 390 ad. the obelisk was delivered to Constantinople, but during transportation the granite monolith burst into two parts, and therefore on the racetrack was installed on a marble pedestal part of the height of almost 20 m and weighing about 282 tons.

The photo shows a Snake column. It is located between the Egyptian obelisk and the obelisk of Constantine. Initially, the Snake column was in the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi (Greece). The bronze column (tripod), created from fused weapons of the Persians killed during the battle (battle of Plataea-479 BC), was transported to Constantinople in 324 ad by Constantine the Great.

You can look at the Sultanahmet square from a bird's eye view. Try to find the famous columns. Closer to us in the photo is a Blue mosque, a little further the Hagia Sophia

We were in the square on a weekday, so there are not so many people, we were lucky...

Very old tree on the territory of The blue mosque

The Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque is located in the European part of Istanbul, near the coast of the Marmara sea in the historical center of the city — Sultanahmet. The mosque is located opposite the Hagia Sophia Museum (Hagia Sophia) and is one of the symbols of Istanbul. The Blue mosque is also a real masterpiece of Islamic architecture and therefore every day you can see a lot of visitors from around the world.

The Blue mosque was built on the order of Sultan Ahmed I, and as a result it was named after him Ahmed Or Sultanahmet. Later, the mosque was named the Blue mosque by Europeans, because its decorations were used tiles of Iznik ceramics, painted in blue and white colors, and the interior of the semi-domes and the large dome of the mosque was also decorated with blue patterns. Thanks to the combination of these details and the light that falls from 260 Windows, the interior of the mosque really seems blue. The Central dome of the mosque has a height of 43 m and a diameter of 23.5 m and is supported by four powerful columns with a diameter of five meters.

The most frequently visited tourist attraction not only in Istanbul but also in Turkey as a whole is the Hagia Sophia Museum. The world-famous monument of Byzantine architecture and the symbol of the" Golden age " of Byzantium, built in 537, remained the largest Christian Church until the construction of St. Peter's in Rome in 1626 (more than a thousand years). The height of the Church of Hagia Sophia on the dome of 55.6 meters, and the dome, "hanging" over the temple on four columns, reaches a diameter of 31.5 meters.

Since 1935, by order of the founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Hagia Sophia became a Museum, and mosaics and frescoes smeared by the Ottomans were opened, but next to them were left fascinating Islamic ornaments. So now inside the Museum you can see an unimaginable mixture of Christian and Islamic symbols.

The most important residents of Istanbul near the Blue mosque:))

Historical Turkish Hammam Hürrem Sultan (she was a Ukrainian wife of Sultan Suleiman. It was stolen from Ukraine, but the Ukrainian girl did not give up. Moreover, all Turks remember it and are afraid).

This renovated Hammam Hürrem is located in the historic centre and is the most expensive of all the historical baths. It retains the style of architecture, but the building itself is not authentic, only a few marble slabs under glass. But in General, if you want a real 300-year-old Hamam, go to Kalagoglu-there 300-year-old marble live, in the morning and up to 3 hours a few people, so you can get all the huge Hamam at your disposal!

Walking area to Hagia Sophia

Beautiful fountain between Hagia Sophia and The Blue mosque. Around the fountain decorated with mosaics with historical paintings. This year made a new lighting fountain

The architecture of the Hagia Sophia looks very majestic.

After the Turkish conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed Fatih in 1453, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. Sultan Mehmed II Fatih (Conqueror) renovated the building and built one minaret. Frescoes and mosaics were covered with a layer of plaster and found again only during the restoration work. Numerous rearrangements produced during the Ottoman period, the Hagia Sophia has been considerably strengthened, including through the stabilizing minarets. Subsequently, there were additional minarets (there were only 4 of them), a library at the mosque, a madrasah at the mosque (a Muslim educational institution serving as a secondary school) and shadyrvan (a place for ritual ablution before namaz).