Istanul: Day 4

Today we saw a few mosques built my the famous architect, Mimar Sinan, in the 16th century during the height of the Ottoman Empire.

Rustempasa. This mosque was somewhat small, consequently giving it a cozy feel. The tiles decorating it were absolutely beautiful.

Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque. This one was my favorite. It was quite spacious and the decorations are very light and tasteful. I didn't get overwhelmed when first walking into this mosque, as I had with mosques decorated with thousands of tiles.

For lunch we were given free time to explore the area and the neighboring spice market. For desert we tried some of the best baklava in the city - it was filled with pistachios, and very sweet and good.








Tea for sale at the spice market.













Dried fruit stuffed with nuts. I've never seen this before, so I thought it'd be fun to share - they look good. I didn't try them though...











Our afternoon was fill with another tour of a church-turned-mosque, which is now a museum.This is an 11th-century church was noted for its remarkable mosaics illustrating scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary.

The picture shown here is my favorite - it is just so precise! The majority of the other mosaics in the museum are in better shape (more complete). A special artist was brought in to create the faces of these biblical figures. Even from this picture one can see how detailed the face is.


In the afternoon we walked through one of the poorer parts of the city on the European side of Turkey. The sense of community was very strong in this area. Women and girls gathered on the streets to chat and retired/unemployed men sat in the tea shops laughing and playing cards. Children, too, entertained themselves with "marble soccer" and rain that had collected in a dip in the road.


These signs in the window are to protest the government's plan to restore these building, consequently forcing their tenets out of their homes.

Our afternoon ended with a gorgeous and relaxing 1.5 hour cruise on the Bosphorous (the strait separating European and Asian Turkey).

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the cruise.









A mosque located right down on the water. This is a good example of how these are everywhere, and seem to fit in just like any other building, despite being very recognizable by the minarets.