A Palace and a band

Having completed our study/tour of early Ottoman sites, today we toured the Dolmabache Palace complex, built in the mid-1800's and home to the last 6 Caliphs (sultans) and 1st president of Turkey. It is an imense structure, rivaling any central European Palace in decoration and splendor yet obvious ly very liveable. It is about 50,000 sq feet and has 285 rooms, including 44 reception halls. The collections of artwork from around the world is exquisite. I loved the old paintings - not enough time to really even enjoy them all! Many of the floors were amazingly complex parquetry designs. Plus all the floors were covered with rugs - mostly Turkish but some Persian. The Hereke rug in the Royal Women's Hall is over 300 ft sq! All the very large rugs were from Hereke - I guess they were commissioned to do the huge weavings - I can't imagine how large the looms were or how long it too to weave such rugs!

After spending nearly 3 hours there, we headed back to the Taksim area for lunch and then walked to the Military Museum, arriving just in time for the Janissary Band performance. It was very inspiring! The deal of the day were their CD's - for $1.25 Turkish Lira - less than $1 US. We toured the museum - too big to even begin to do justice to in the 1 hour before closing time, but did see the chain that used to be across the Bosphorous, placed by the Byzantines to keep big ships (and possible invaders) out of the Golden Horn and Istanbul. The didn't count on Mehmed's ingenuity and determination when he dragged his ships up and over land to get around the chain and thus attack Constnatinople and lay seige allowing for the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

For my horse interest, there was a good amount of information and collections from the mounted horsemen days - really the major strength of the Ottomans until the technologies of the early 20th century rendered horses virtually useless.

Walked back to the hotel after a stop for coffee and light shopping (not buying). Tomorrow we enter a highly secured area - we will visit a synagogue where there were attacks twice last year after incidents in Gaza. We have had to be cleared by their security and must have our passports with us. My Jewish friend likens it to having to show our passports to go to church...sad, huh?

until later.....