As the 21-year old Sultan Mehmed II strode on his horse among the ruins of the 1,000 year old castle of the Byzantines, which had fallen to him after a long and hard fought battle in which Emperor Constantine XI had lost his life, he recited a Persian 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. From there, his successors would rule over three continents for almost 500 years, as narrated by Lord Kinross in Ottoman Centuries.
Istanbul spans two continents and, like Rome, it is built out over 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.
We arrived there late one September evening. After checking in, we went for dinner at the rooftop restaurant which overlooked the Bosporus.
The view just swept us off our feet. A myriad 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, awaiting the arrival of her groom on the wedding night.
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
Istanbul is the heir to several civilisations including those of the Hittites, Persians, Romans, early Christians, Byzantines, Arabs, Seljuks and of course, the Ottomans. The last have bequeathed to it the grand mosques located atop the hills that give this city what is arguably the world’s most picturesque skyline.
The Sultan Ahmet area is the ultimate tourist destination. Here are located the sprawling Topkapi Saray (Palace), the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia. History oozes out of every brick and stone.
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 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.
Elsewhere, we toured the Suleymania Jami, a mosque built by the Suleyman, whose reign is commemorated in the television mega-series, Magnificent Century. The emperor and his concubine-turned wife Hurrem are entombed in the adjacent cemetery.
We saw Fatih Jami, built by Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople. The mosque is located in a very traditional part of the city. It seemed to have come straight out 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. Its architecture and furnishings provides a visual reminder of the Europeanisation of Turkey that began two centuries ago.
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 wandered off to climb the hill and began taking 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, began to fill my mind.
I avoided all eye contact, kept my head down, and continued walking. They ignored me. The danger was over.
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 who introduced himself as 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 to join the communal dance.
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 through volcanic ash and shaped subsequently by wind. The landing of the balloon was an unexpected thrill that I would not like to repeat. That quiet aerial journey over a surreal landscape is lodged in memory.
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 had 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 that has hosted summer concerts by the likes of Elton John. In the afternoon, we flew back to Istanbul from Izmir, which was called Smyrna in Homer’s days.
Our last night in Istanbul was spent at the Pera Palace hotel. This is an all-time classic, located close to the train station. Agatha Christie wrote ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ here. Our daughters stayed in a room that had been used by the Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky. The Shah of Iran, Ataturk, the King of Egypt and other heads of state had stayed in other rooms. You could not help but feel that history had touched you.
The writer has toured 36 countries. He can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, February 20th 2018.