Day Sixteen of Trip

We came through the Bosporus to Istanbul, the west on the northwest, the residential east on the other side. This is a huge city, twice the size of New York, with minarets and mosques everywhere, most buildings low in fear of the earthquakes. The hill where the St Sophia, The Blue Mosque and Topkapi sit dominates the eastern side. The early Greeks came here 600 years before Christ, to Byzantium, the Persians took it, then Alexander. The Roman Empire moved here and Constantine recreated it as Constantinople, Justinian (with the infamous Theodora) built St. Sophia in the sixth Century, the Crusaders took it and held it for almost one hundred years then Mehmet 11 took it, named it Istanbul and built Topkapi Palace. Suleyman 1 "The Magnificant" solidified the Ottomans. Modern Istanbul was created by Mustafa Kemal, "Ataturk".
The city is stupendous, sprawling and diverse. The architecture is the same. Regrettably Sophia--one of the real reasons to come here--was closed but we went to Topkapi, the Blue Mosque and the old town. Topkapi is filled with the most extraordinary relics from Old and New testament times and from Mohamed. We had lunch in a terrific restaurant--so good I encouraged wandering Europeans to try it. We went to the bazaar with its thousands of shops--you could spend your lifetime searching it--and ended up on a small boat as we cruised the Bosporus along the east and west shore. (There is a lot of money here.)
A very different place from other stops and from the West.