Vince and I saw just a very small part of the Sultanahmet district yesterday, and planned to spend the day in the area again to see the sights we had missed. We began the day with breakfast at the foot of the Galata Tower. Vince tried the Turkish scrambled eggs, which were a lot like Oeufs Basquaise while I had an assortment of Turkish pastries made from layers of a phyllo-like dough, wrapped or folded around minced meat, cheese, or whipped potato, and looked a lot like egg rolls and samosas on the outside.
Turkish tea
The Bosphorus with the southeastern tip of the New District on the left.
We arrived at the Blue Mosque, but since it was closed momentarily for prayer, we took a peek at the Monuments in the Hippodrome, where chariot races once took place in Constantinople.
This Eygptian obelisk dates to 1500 BC
A fountain (gift) from Germany.
We returned to the Blue Mosque, or Sultan Ahmet Mosque as it's called by the locals, and shed our shoes to enter. The inside is decorated with beautiful painted Iznik tiles in blue hues (thus the name), frescoes, calligraphy, and unlike the Ayasofa, there are lots of glass windows (engineering had improved since the Ayasofya's construction).
Entrance to the courtyard of the Blue Mosque
Exterior of the Blue Mosque
So beautiful!
Blue Mosque at night
Since our last trip to the Grand Bazaar, Vince and I read up on rugs and carpets. After a bit of research, we knew Sisko Osman was our go-to guy. His family has been in the rug business for five generations, and they've developed a reputation for high quality, authentic, hand made Turkish carpets. As well as being mentioned in several travel guides, Sisko's shop has had several celebrity customers. Ready to go, we headed back into the chaos to find a souvenir.
A pretty quiet corner of the bazaar
Camal (pronounced Jamal), Sisko's nephew, welcomed us into the shop. There we were brought hot tea to sip on as we learned about the many aspects of Turkish carpets. Knots, wool, silk, cotton, dyes, village woven, tribal woven, age, region...all things to consider in addition to price. He and his assistant began unrolling dozens of beautiful carpets, each one unique. Some of these carpets can take one person over a year to craft. These floor coverings are really fine works of art, and we learned that in Turkey, a beautiful handmade carpet was sometimes part of a bride's dowry, made by the bride and her family (we saw a few of examples of these). In our reading we learned that there really isn't such a thing as a new, hand-woven Turkish carpet as the industry completely left the country in 2000, meaning dishonest carpet sellers could be selling "Turkish" rugs and carpets made in China, India, or Iran. Carpets hand made on a loom can also handle more wool, whereas machine made ones often result in a thinner pile or incorporate other fibers. I could go into how region affects the characteristics of a sheep's wool, direction of the loops and how it affects the appearance of the carpet...as you can see there's a lot to know when it comes to carpets, and I'm hardly an expert. After several rounds of tea, carpet show-and-tell, and bargaining, we purchased a vintage (1955-1960) wool on cotton Hereke and a Kilim from the Kayseri region.
Thanks to Camal, we are owners of a new-to-us Turkish carpet.
A real beauty
If you're interested in learning more about Turkish rugs and carpets, here are a couple of links we found interesting: