Today we hit some of the main tourist sites in Istanbul. To bad I don’t have an easy way to upload pics…The curious can find images via google.
Sites:
– Blue Mosqoue; huge 400 year old building, very impressive dome!
– Aya Sofia; another impressive dom; this building was a church for it’s first 1000 years, then Constantinople was conquert and the new muslim rulers decided the building would make a nice mosque
– Byzantine Cistern; this is a giant underground cistern build by the Romans. Unbelievable what they put together here
– Spice Market; big market hall with all kinds of shops but mostly spices and traditional sweets
– Grand Bazaar; actually one enormous tourist trap; I can’t count how often I was asked today if I wanted to buy a carpet!
The area aroun the above markets is full with shops of all sizes and shapes where one can by anything.
The density and variety of historic sites here is rather unique. So much history was made here by the Greek, Romans, Ottomans with there different cultures and religions