Lovely Istanbul - Part 1

For this half term break, we decided to visit Istanbul as we have read and heard a lot about its architectures, museums and landmarks. Despite the cold weather, we made the most of our trip. The places we saw were beautiful and offered a lot of their histories. 

We would wake up to the Galata Tower daily and we could see the sheer amount of tourists swarming around the area queueing up to see up the tower. other places that we visited were the Blue Mosque, The Suleymaniye Mosque, the Topkapi Palace, the Agia Sophia. The grand ceiling of the Agia Sophia with the islamic inscriptions made it more spectacular to admire. Tourists were everywhere and not wanting to leave.   

The magnificent view of the Blue Mosque overlooking the Bosphorus river

one of the courtyards in Topkapi Palace

                                            one of the chambers in Topkapi Palace

                              understanding a bit more about the Ottomans and their conquest

                                  The suit of the ceremonial armour of Mustafa III

 

        The ceiling of Hagia Sophia

Taksim Square was another place we enjoyed visiting. On our way, we saw the tram and came across an Armenian church called the St Anthony of Padua situated in the beyoglu district. It was a beautiful church with the "Jesus Twisted" - Sculpture by Wim Delvoye.

St Anthony of Padua church in Beyoglu

"Jesus Twisted"