Wrapping up in Istanbul

Sorry for the delay in this post; the internet in Istanbul was painfully slow (SMCM-level or worse), and the internet was down in my hostel in Ravenna last night.  Not a huge deal anyway; I actually don't have much to say for this one.

Kyle and I had a fairly large day planned to finish up our stay in Istanbul, but it mostly became a lot of walking around.  We started the day by going to the Blue Mosque (free!), a mosque built in the early 17th century and in close proximity to Hagia Sophia.  There's quite a resemblance between the two building, at least from the outside (excepting that the Blue Mosque has 6 minarets to Hagia Sophia's 4):

Not being particularly well-versed in Islamic art and architecture, I'll let the pictures of the interior speak for themselves:

The Mihrab, the section of a mosque that points directly towards Mecca.  These are often not centered, but this one is in the center of the mosque

Nearly all the detailing is done using painted tiles

Because this is still a functioning mosque, we couldn't explore very much; only a fairly small section of the ground floor was open to us (the upstairs is exclusively for women).  The scale is certainly impressive, but I have to admit that I wasn't exactly blown away.  I personally find the decoration pretty boring.  Because of the Muslim prohibition of images in places of worship, the mosque is covered in naturalistic patterns, and it all becomes  bit busy for my tastes after a while.  Definitely an architectural marvel, but not as interesting to visit as other things I'd seen here in Istanbul.

After this, we planned to check out a few other mosques that had originally been important Byzantine churches.  Unfortunately, we struck out completely; every one we went to was closed or under construction, and so we couldn't see inside.  Instead we ended up going to Taksim Square, in the new city, and then we got lost trying to get back (one wrong turn, which we didn't realize we had made until we'd walked for a couple miles).  We did get to try some pretty good seafood for lunch though.  Just a grilled fish sandwich, but it was bought directly from a boat and only cost 5 lira.  Pretty good, I thought.

In the evening, we bought tickets to a concert taking place in Hagia Eirene, the Church of Holy Peace.  This was the second largest church in Constantinople, and like the Hagia Sophia it was built in the 6th century.

Unlike Hagia Sophia, this was never converted to a mosque.  I was used as the sultan's armory though, and so it hasn't been a church for centuries.  It's typically closed to visitors, but open for special events.  The concert was the debut of a contemporary opera, written by an American and in English, about the life of the Muslim poet Rumi.  The opera was...interesting.  But I wasn't really there for the music anyway; I wanted to see the church.  These pictures aren't the greatest (the lights were down, and I didn't have a tripod), but it was a pretty cool experience.  Very few visitors to Istanbul get to see inside:

In the last shot, you can see the cross in the apse; originally, there would have been a much more elaborate mosaic there, such as the Virgin and Child or Christ Pantokrator.  But, when iconoclasm came on the scene, that was destroyed, and this simple cross mosaic put in its place.  The only religious imagery acceptable to the iconoclasts was the cross, and this is a rare example of a church that remains with their decoration (when iconoclasm ended, most churches were enthusiastically redecorated with icons and mosaics).

So, that ends my time in Istanbul.  It was quite a trip, and I'm so glad I went (I've been meaning to get there since I was in Oxford, 3 years ago).  But now I'm even more excited for Italy.  I'm writing this just after my first day in Ravenna; that post should be up shortly after this one.  As usual, ask me some questions!