Daily Times

When the 21-year old Sultan Mehmed II rode his horse into the thousand-year old castle of the Byzantines as it lay in ruins after a long and hard fought battle in which Emperor Constantine XI had lost his life, Mehmed II was moved to recite a verse of Saadi’s, “The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars. The owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiab.”

Henceforth Mehmed would be known as “Sultan Fatih,” and Constantinople would be known as Istanbul. His successors would rule over three continents for almost 500 years.

Istanbul spans two continents and, like Rome, the city is built on seven hills. Its beauty is accentuated by two flowing bodies of water, the Bosporus, which divides the two halves of the city and connects the Sea of Marmara in the south with the Black Sea in the north, and the Golden Horn, which separates the old city from the new city.

On our final day we checked out Ephesus, one of the world’s best-preserved Graeco-Roman cities, with marble-lined streets, a big library and an open-air theater at which the likes of Elton John have performed

We arrived there late one September evening. After checking in the hotel, we went for dinner at a rooftop restaurant that overlooked the Bosporus.

The view swept us off our feet. A myriad of minarets and domes glistened in the distance, silhouetted by the setting sun. In half an hour, a full moon rose over the Bosporus Bridge, causing the water to sparkle like glitter. The city looked like a bride waiting for the arrival of her groom on their wedding night.

Istanbul is the heir to the civilizations of the Hittites, Persians, Romans, early Christians, Byzantines, Arabs, Seljuks and of course, the Ottomans, who bequeathed to it the grand mosques that give it arguably the world’s most picturesque skyline.

We began by visiting the Sultan Ahmet area, including the sprawling Topkapi Saray (Palace), the Blue Mosque, and the Hagia Sofia.

We toured a vast underground cistern with 1,001 columns that was used to transport water from the Bulgarian forests. Built by the Byzantines, it lay undiscovered by the Ottomans for a hundred years. Inside the cistern, there are two statues of Medusa’s head built in green marble. When the Turks arrived, they heard that Medusa would turn all those without blue eyes into stone. Since none of them had blue eyes, they developed the practice of wearing trinkets with a blue eye as a talisman.

We also toured the Suleymania Jami, a mosque where the emperor and his wife Hurrem are entombed. Their lives are featured in the hit drama, ‘Magnificent Century.’ We saw Fatih Jami of Mehmed II, which is located in a traditional part of town. It could have come straight out of a tale of the Arabian Nights.

Remnants of the Byzantine Wall were visible everywhere in the old city. Near our hotel was the Dolmabachie Saray, which was used by the Ottomans during their last century. Ataturk died there.

We took the Bosporus cruise and went past bridges, villas, mosques, forts, palaces, shipping boats and large Russian ships. We got off at the last port and stepped onto Asian soil. A Genoese castle, perched above a hill, beckoned.

I decided to climb up to the fort to take some pictures. But my heart sank as I got to the top.  There were signs prohibiting photography and barbed wire fences. The steep and rapid climb had been

wasted. Worse, there was a guard in a gatehouse with a helmet and an automatic rifle and he was looking with dismay at my camera.

Anxious not to become his “enemy of the day,” I reversed course and started walking downhill. Unfortunately, an army truck was coming up the road and I was certain they would pick me up. Images from the film, ‘Midnight Express,’ came to my mind.

I avoided all eye contact, kept my head down, and continued walking. Thankfully, they ignored me.

Then we flew off to Cappadocia, where the first episode of ‘Star Wars’ was filmed. It has gigantic mushroom-shaped rock formations and caves that give it an eerie feeling. Our rooms at the Lale (tulip) Saray were entirely inside a cave.

We hired a tour guide called Genghis. He took us to another cave that evening where we took part in the somewhat raucous event that passes for a Turkish night. I was grateful not to be picked up to join the communal dance in which men danced without their shirts.

The next day, we toured an underground city of the Hittites. Some of the houses were seven stories deep and we had to bend and stoop through low passageways.  Afterwards, we walked through the largest open-air museum featuring churches in caves and unusual lava formations.

The next morning, we hopped into a hot-air balloon before sunrise. Sharing our tiny wicker basket were a Belgian couple living in Dubai and a young Turkish pilot dressed in a leather jacket and military cap. The views were surreal, especially as the sun came out. It lit up miles and miles of “fairy chimneys” that were formed millions of years ago by gas bubbling up through volcanic ash and getting shaped by wind. The landing of the balloon was an unexpected thrill that I would not like to repeat.

That evening we got into a tour bus for an epic, 13-hour night journey to Kusadasi on the Aegean Sea. The bus stopped briefly in Konya but there was no time to visit Maulana Rumi’s mosque, where his birthday was being celebrated in earnest. The long bus ride tired us out so we decided to simply relax at our hotel on Polat Beach and take in the beautiful views of the sea.

The next morning, we toured Heirapolis, a Roman city with photogenic houses, tombs, and a vast amphitheater. Then we drove to Pamukkale (cotton castle), one of the world’s most photographed sites. It has unusual white formations running down mountainsides.

On our final day we checked out Ephesus, one of the world’s best-preserved Roman cities, with marble-lined streets, a big library and an open-air theater at which the likes of Elton John have performed. In the afternoon, we flew back to Istanbul from Izmir.

Our last night in Istanbul was spent at the Pera Palace hotel. Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express there. Our daughters stayed in a room that had been used by Leon Trotsky. The Shah of Iran, Ataturk, the king of Egypt and other heads of state had stayed in other rooms.

As we got ready to fly home the next day, we all felt like we had been touched by history.

The writer has toured 36 countries. He can be reached at Ahmadfaruqui@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, July 16^th 2018.