Strolling Through Istanbul
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This classic guide to Istanbul by Hilary Sumner-Boyd and John Freely is here, for the first time since its original publication thirty-seven years ago, published in a completely revised and updated new edition. Taking the reader on foot through this captivating city - European City of Culture 2010 - the authors describe the historic monuments and sites of what was once Constantinople and the capital in turn of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, in the context of the great living city. Woven throughout are vivid anecdotes, secret histories, hidden gems and every major place of interest the traveler will want to see. Practical and informative, readable and vividly described, this is the definitive guide to and story of Istanbul, by those who know it best.
But first we had to get there. The sun was low in the sky and I was running out of hope when my father leaned across the aisle to announce that we had entered Turkish airspace. I looked down, expecting an oriental landscape in all its purple splendour, but all I saw were brown and empty hills. Yeşilköy Airport was no better, a mustard-yellow building surrounded by more brown hills. We were soon on a bus that took us through Edirne Kapı, across the Galata Bridge and down the Bosphorus Road to Rumeli Hisar. There were so many surprises coming at me now that I had no time to notice the scenery. I was too worried about the cars careering towards us on the wrong side of the road, and the donkey carts they almost crashed into, the stench of the tanning factories, the gypsies camped along the walls, and the hordes of men wearing identical brown caps.
This classic guide to Istanbul by Hilary Summer-Boyd and John Freely - the 'best travel guide to Istanbul' (The Times), 'a guide book that reads like a novel' (New York Times) - is here, for the first time since its original publication thirty-seven years ago, published in a completely revised and updated new edition. Taking the reader on foot through this captivating city - European City of Culture 2010 - the authors describe the historic monuments and sites of what was once Constantinople and the capital in turn of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, in the context of the great living city. Woven throughout are vivid anecdotes, secret histories, hidden gems and every major place of interest the traveller will want to see. Practical and informative, readable and vividly described, this is the definitive guide to and story of Istanbul, by those who know it best.
This one hour tour starts at the Sultanahmet Square. First, we will walk through the Hippodrome of Constantinople, once the public arena for chariot races, gladiatorial games, official ceremonies, celebrations and protests. I will explain all the monuments that were brought in from across the empire to demonstrate the power of the Roman Emperors: The Serpent Column from Delphi, The Obelisk of Thutmosis III from Egpyt, etc.
Then we will enter the courtyard of the Blue Mosque and talk about the conquest of Constantinople and all the changes and consequences afterwards. From there, we will walk through the Sultanahmet Square to the Baths of Roxelane, the wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. At the end of the tour, we will reach Saint Sophia and I will explain you how this extraordinary building was erected in just five years.
We had a wonderful private tour of Istanbul with family zooming in from multiple locations across the country on Mother's Day. It was a great way for all of us to gather as a Mother's Day gift. The tour was wonderful. Ayse was exceptionally knowledgeable and did a terrific job guiding us through the history of Istanbul.
We start the day with a visit to a marvellous mosque (SULEYMANIYE), which was comissioned by Suleyman the Magnificent and built by the best known Ottoman architect of Sinan the Great. We will learn astonishing stories behind this masterpiece and you will fall in love just like me.We walk to the biggest and also the oldest bazaar (GRAND BAZAAR). While walking through the narrow streets of the market we will explore the shops offering us some unique items made by some experienced artisans who are mostly keeping some of the dying traditions. We won't only see these interesting shops but also enjoying some of the hidden corners together including the Hans. One of the other interesting spot is the roof tops of the bazaar.After having our lunch break in my favorite restaurant which is also prefered by the shopkeepers we head to SPICE MARKET. We will have a chance to try the most delicious Turkish delights of different kind offered by local vendorsThis itinerary can be customized pls message me for more details
But this explosive growth has in many respects spared the historic heart of the city, that is to say the seven-hilled peninsula bounded on the north by the Golden Horn, on the south by the Marmara, and on its landward side by the ancient Theodosian Walls, though in the areas frequented by most tourists its streets are now clogged with traffic and its sidewalks thronged with pedestrians, as I learned when I began revising this guide. But as I began strolling through the old city again I found that even in the busiest areas it was still the same enchanting place that I first came to know in the autumn of 1960. As I left the crowded avenues and stepped into the quiet courtyard of an old mosque or medrese, I found there the Istanbul of my first memories. Thus I have not changed the original itineraries, though I have updated the descriptions of the monuments and museums to reflect the changes that have taken place since the original edition was published. Along the way I have noted what has been lost forever, such as the little village that once flourished in the great Roman reservoir on the Fifth Hill, where the tree tops and chimneys and the minaret of the mosque came up only to the level of the surrounding streets, and where an old man raised peacocks for sale, perhaps to princes. Now I pass that scene on to those who might stroll that way with this guide in hand, along with other remembrances of things past that still linger on in the civic memory of Istanbul.
Our more personal debts are many. The elder collaborator remembers with delight and gratitude his first introduction to the antiquities of the city by two former colleagues on the staff of Robert College, the late Sven Larsen and Mr. Arthur Stratton, who has recently poured his enthusiasm for the city into his book about Sinan. The late Paul Underwood and his colleague Mr. Ernest Hawkins allowed him to follow their wonderful work of restoration at Kariye Camii as it progressed. Mr. Robert Van Nice not only allowed him the same privilege throughout his long years of investigations at Haghia Sophia but was a constant source of help and encouragement, as was also Mr. Cyril Mango who introduced him to many an important traveller of former days. To Dr. Aptullah Kuran, his former student at Robert College, later his colleague there, and the first rector at the University of the Bosphorus, most penetrating of Turkish historians of Ottoman architecture, his debts are too continuous and multifarious to be easily acknowledged or adequately repaid. And the same is true of Mr. Godfrey Goodwin, until recently professor of art history at Robert College, whose monumental History of Ottoman Architecture has revealed to the world for the first time in a western language the wealth and variety of its subject.
The younger author also owes a debt of gratitude to Godfrey Goodwin, who tried to teach him something of Byzantine and Ottoman architecture and who was his first companion-guide to the antiquities of Istanbul. The author fondly recalls the many friends who shared with him and his wife Dolores the pleasures of strolling through Istanbul on Saturday afternoons, picnicking on a Bosphorus ferry or on a tower of the Theodosian walls and later singing and dancing together at one of the now-vanished tavernas of old Pera. To list their names would be too poignant, since so many have left Istanbul and some he will never see again; he can only hope that this book will evoke for his dear friends some memories of the mad and happy days we spent together in this wonderful old town.
According to tradition, the original settlement from which the city grew was established on the acropolis above Saray Point in the seventh century B.C., although there is evidence that the site was inhabited much earlier than that. The legendary founder of the town of Byzantium was Byzas the Megarian, who established a colony on the acropolis in the year 667 B.C. We are told that Byzas had consulted the Delphic oracle, who advised him to settle opposite the land of the blind. The oracle was referring to the residents of Chalcedon, a Greek colony which had been established some years before across the strait. The implication is that the Chalcedonians must have been blind not to have appreciated the much greater advantages of the site chosen by Byzas. Situated at the mouth of the Bosphorus, it was in a position to control all shipping from the Black Sea, the ancient Pontus, through to the Propontus and the Aegean, while its position on the boundary of Europe and Asia eventually attracted to it the great land routes of both continents. Moreover, surrounded as it is on three sides by water, its short landward exposure defended by strong walls, it could be made impregnable to attack. As the French writer Gyllius concluded four centuries ago: It seems to me that while other cities may be mortal, this one will remain as long as there are men on earth.
Despite these numerous wars Byzantium was still strong and basically sound as late as the middle of the eleventh century, controlling an empire which stretched from western Persia through Asia Minor and the Balkans to southern Italy. But then in the year 1071 the Byzantine army, led by Romanus IV, suffered a catastrophic defeat by the Selçuk Turks at the battle