The Land Before Time: Tome IV - Constantinople, Topkapı Palace

A few minutes walk from Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque will bring you to Topkapı Palace, a royal residence for the Ottoman Sultans. So convenient that all their attractions are clustered in one area hehe. First look at the palace architecture may not wow you, but the exhibitions and display items (jewellery, accessories, garments, weapons, furniture, etc) were really fantastic! Too bad photography of the exhibits is prohibited. =(

Note that the last letter of 'Topkapı' is not an 'i', as it doesn't have the dot on top. The last syllabus is not pronounced as 'pee', but 'peur'. Ok enough of the linguistics lol.

Long queue at the entrance of Topkapı Palace, as expected...

Palace gardens - feels like the Istana haha.

The palace ground is crowded with tourists like me hehe.

Queue to enter the exhibition rooms. One of them has the largest diamond I've ever seen - 86 carats!!! (4th largest diamond in the world by record) It's the most valuable single exhibit in this palace, thus heavily guarded by security.

The statue is gone but the trace must remain haha.

Entrance to some prayer room I think.

The highlight is the gold-clad ceilings.

*glitter glitter*

The typical Islamic design.

Is that a basin to wash...my feet??

Cosy rooms with a comfy couch. I think I'll just zzz on it.

Here's where the royals gather and talk cock in the past lol.

Prayer room with good lighting and nice sea breeze.

We also visited another area which charged a separate entrance fee - the Harem. 'Harem' means a forbidden place but in this context it's a residence for female members of the family and hence forbidden to men.

Since I can enter, it's no longer 'Harem' anymore haha.

The walls are generally quite colourful with lots of patterns.

Reminds me of Singapore in the 1960s...

Another wash basin! Wonder what's that really used for...

A fireplace I suppose? But where does the smoke go?

So colourful walls...like kueh lapis lol.

Being in such cool place with comfy looking furniture really makes me want to zzz.

Nice windows!

Courtyard. Can imagine boys playing sepak takraw here lol.

Lol everyone is hiding in the shadow!

View of the blue blue sea...wow! Shall cover more on the sea/river in my next entry.

The Land Before Time: Tome III - Constantinople, Blue Mosque, Sunken Palace

This is Blue Mosque, a mosque obviously. No controversy over this.

As you approach Blue Mosque, you feel dwarfed by its enormity.

The spick and span courtyard. I love the blue sky =p

Thanks to my wide-lens camera, I was able to get a good shot of the Blue Mosque from this angle, though I didn't manage to capture the tip of the two minarets.

Now I know why Blue Mosque is so called. It sure does look bluish from here.

The inside is...really crowded argh. Can't find even a decent place to rest.

The ceiling looks cleaner and more polished compared to Hagia Sophia.

Why is this portion so quiet? Out of bounds lah.

I've never entered SG's Sultan Mosque before but I bet it looks far from this haha.

Nearby Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia was an entrance with passageway leading underground. It was Basilica Cistern, which used to sit beneath a cathedral square. This huge ancient cistern can store up to 100,000 tons of water! There are several of such ancient cistern underneath Istanbul. 'Sunken Palace' sounds like a better name to me hehe.

Wah creepy...it feels like a scene from a thriller/horror movie.

It feels like I'm exploring a dungeon in an RPG. Where's the boss fight?

Ok now I know where people take their pictures in Ottoman costumes, in carpeted background and bombastic crowns.

Oh I didn't know carps could live in such dark water.

*Gasp* Medusa lives here!!!! The final boss of this dungeon! *screams in fear*

This must be Medusa's doing. Poor peacock.

Here's Medusa! Two somemore! Looks like she looked into a mirror and petrified herself, hence eventually became part of a pillar.

Although Medusa is already turned into stone, looking into her eyes can still make you turn into stone. I didn't know that...looked into her eyes...and froze.... 

Game Over. Banished into Hell forever.

After the dungeon-crawling expedition, let's visit another one of the many great mosques in Sultanahmet.(Can't remember the name...oops)

Not to be confused with Blue Mosque, though the colour, shape and structure really looks the same.

Minarets are like supporting roles in a film. Good ones can really complement the main structure.

You can wash your feet here after taking your shoes off to enter the premises. I didn't bother to wash my feet heh heh.

The courtyard. Can see spot any major difference from that of the Blue Mosque?

Compared to the similar shot I took of the Blue Mosque...this one looks less sophisticated.

The interior is rather similar as well, except that it's much quieter than the Blue Mosque.

The must-take ceiling shot.

Found a cosy spot to rest...and sleep zzzz. (Who made the carpet so comfortable?!)

I've never visited so many mosques in my life before. But this trip really made me realise the beauty of mosques, and appreciate its sophisticated architecture and interior art. =)