ISTANBUL THROUGH MY EYES - THE BEST FOR THE LAST

Back from a Chhota Break for Christmas, I must finish my story. It would be an injustice to leave out some very precious and important landmarks that dot the city randomly but are nonetheless not to be ignored.

As a student of ancient history, it bugged me no end trying to remember which fact of the world gone by was inscribed on which stone, coin, pillar or the bits and pieces from which historians seem to have conjured up their fantastic stories. In Istanbul, I got a first hand experience of history in bits and pieces, both over and under the ground, lost in translation – as this city had changed hands ever so often. Some of these are truly breathtaking and tell us that our ancestors didn’t have to be technology savvy to build and invent the most efficient systems that made ancient civilizations so advanced.

Walking through the old city history stands cheek by jowl with modern shops, restaurants and buildings. You could experience an evening of Sufi music in the waiting room of the railway station with the Orient Express waiting for its next trip at a platform right across. You could enjoy a night of Belly Dancing and Cultural Shows while you eat and drink the local fare in the Galata Tower.

BASILICA CISTERN
(Yerebatan Sarayı - "Sunken Palace", or Yerebatan Sarnıcı - "Sunken Cistern")

The Basilica Cistern is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul. It was built in the 6th century during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. This underground structure was known as the “Basilica Cistern” as it was built underneath the Stoa Basilica, a large public square on the First Hill of Constantinople. It provided water for the Great Palace and other buildings on the First Hill, and continued to provide water to the Topkapi Palace into modern times.

The cistern is an underground chamber of 143 metres by 65 metres capable of holding 80,000 cubic metres of water. The large space is broken up by a forest of 336 marble columns arranged in 12 rows each consisting of 28 columns. The capitals of the columns are mainly Ionic and Corinthian styles, with the exception of a few with no engravings.

The cistern is surrounded by a firebrick wall with a thickness of 4 metres and coated with a special mortar for waterproofing. The cistern's water was provided from the Belgrade Woods—which lie 19 kilometres (12 mi) north of the city—via aqueducts built by the Emperor Justinian.

The bases of two of the columns reuse earlier blocks carved with the head of a Medusa. The origin of the two heads is unknown, though it is rumoured that the heads were brought to the cistern after being removed from an antique building of the late Roman period. Another mystery is why one of the heads is upside down, while the other is tilted to one side.

VALENS AQUEDUCT
Aqueduct of the Grey Falcon

The Valens Aqueduct meaning "Aqueduct of the grey falcon” was the major water-providing system of medieval Constantinople. Restored by several Ottoman Sultans it is one of the most important landmarks of the city. The exact date of construction is not known but it was completed in 368 during the reign of Emperor Valens whose name it bears.

The aqueduct spans the valley between the hills occupied today by the Istanbul University and Fatih Mosque. The surviving section is 921 meters long, about 50 meters less than the original length. The Ataturk Bulvarı Boulevard passes under its arches.

The Valens aqueduct, which originally got its water from the slopes of the hills between was merely one of the terminal points of a wide system of aqueducts and canals - which eventually reached over 250 kilometers in total length, the longest such system of Antiquity and provided the capital with water. Once in the city, the water was stored in three open reservoirs and over a hundred underground cisterns such as the Basilica Cistern.

GALATA TOWER

The Galata Tower also called Christea Turris (Tower of Christ) by the Genoese and Megalos Pyrgos (The Great Tower) by the Byzantines, is located, to the north of the Golden Horn. One of the city's most striking landmarks, it is a huge, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline on the Galata side of the Golden Horn.

The tower was built as Christea Turris in 1348 during an expansion of the Genoese colony in Constantinople. It was the apex of the fortifications surrounding the Genoese citadel of Galata. The current tower should not be confused with the old Tower of Galata an original Byzantine tower, named Megalos Pyrgos, which controlled the northern end of the massive sea chain that closed the entrance of the Golden Horn. This tower was on a different site and was largely destroyed during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.
The nine-story tower is 66.90 meters tall and was the city's tallest structure when built. The upper section of the tower with the conical cap was slightly modified in several restorations during the Ottoman period when it was used as an observation tower for spotting fires. In the 1960s the original wooden interior of the tower was replaced by a concrete structure and it was opened to the public. There is a restaurant and café on its upper floors which commands a magnificent view of Istanbul and the Bosphorus. Also located on the upper floors is a nightclub which hosts a Turkish show.

(The Golden Horn is an inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming a natural harbor together with the Sea of Marmara. The Byzantine Empire had its naval headquarters there, and walls were built along the shoreline to protect the city of Constantinople from naval attacks. At the entrance to the Horn, there was a large chain pulled across from Constantinople to the Old Galata Tower on the northern side, preventing unwanted ships from entering. This tower was largely destroyed by the Latin Crusaders but the Genoese built a new tower which they called Christea Turris.)

THE OBELISK OF THEODOSIUS

One example of history with no particular connection or reason to be placed where it is is The Obelisk of Theodosius. It is the Egyptian obelisk of pharaoh Tutmoses II re-erected in the Hippodrome of Constantinople or Sultanahmet Meydanı, in the modern city of Istanbul by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I.

WALLED OBELISK

The Walled Obelisk also known as Constantine Obelisk is situated near the southern side of the Hippodrome. The 32 meter-high obelisk was constructed of roughly cut stones by Constantine VII. Its exact construction date is unknown, but it is named after Constantine VII after he repaired it in tenth century. At that time, it was reportedly decorated with gilded bronze plaques that portrayed victories of Basil I who was grandfather of Constantine VII. Also there was a sphere at the top of obelisk. However, reportedly these gilded bronze plaques were stolen and melted by Fourth Crusaders in 1204.

Since young Ottoman Sultans liked to use the obelisk to climb and show their prowess, the obelisk stone surface suffered further damage to its surface.

SERPENT COLUMN

Serpent Column is an ancient column at the Hippodrome. It is an ancient Greek sacrificial tripod originally located in Delphi and later relocated to Constantinople in 324. The serpent heads of the 8-meter high column remained until the end of the 17th century. One of the missing heads was later found and put on display at the. The Serpentine Column has one of the longest literary histories of any object surviving from Greek and Roman antiquity, and its provenance is not in doubt. It is at least 2486 years old. It was the offering, or trophy, which was dedicated to Apollo at Delphi after the defeat of the Persian army in the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC by those Greek City States, who were in alliance against the Persian invasion of mainland Greece, in the spring of 480 BC – the Persian War.

SUFI DANCES – WHIRLING DERVISHES
One cannot really leave Istanbul without going for a Sufi Dance show. These shows are normally held in the evening when the city begins to shut down in the waiting room of the railway station or the Press Club meeting room among the many venues.

Known to the west as Whirling Dervishes, the Mevlevi Order was founded by Mevlana Rumi in the 13th century. The Order wrote of tolerance, forgiveness, and enlightenment. They survive today as a cultural brotherhood. They are not theatrical spectacles but sacred rituals. The ritual of the Mevlevi sect, known as the sema, is a serious religious ritual performed by Muslim priests in a prayer trance to Allah. Mevlevi believed that during the sema the soul was released from earthly ties, and able to freely and jubilantly commune with the divine. Dervish literally means "doorway" and is thought to be an entrance from this material world to the spiritual, heavenly world. The Whirling Dervishes played an important part in the evolution of Ottoman high culture.

From the fourteenth to the twentieth century, their impact on classical poetry, calligraphy and visual arts was profound. Rumi and his followers integrated music into their rituals as an article of faith. Rumi emphasized that music uplifts our spirit to realms above, and we hear the tunes of the Gates of Paradise.
The sights are many; one can go on and on. View them in pictures

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=mkmfoma.2mvpf29e&x=0&y=-nl7b0&localeid=en_US

Fatima Pais