The Grand Tour
Istanbul
"The Golden Horn is a narrow arm of the sea,
which branches from the Bosphorus... and curving around, divides the city in the
middle. ...This great city contains a million inhabitants, but so narrow are its
streets, and so crowded together are its houses, that it does not cover much
more than half as much ground as New York City....Since from the anchorage...it
is by far the handsomest city we have seen. Its dense array of houses swells
upward from the water’s edge and spreads over the domes of many
hills...countless minarets that meet the eye everywhere invest the metropolis
with the quaint Oriental aspect one dreams of when he reads books of Eastern
travel. Constantinople makes a noble picture."
"Ashore it was--well it was an eternal circus.
People were thicker than bees in those narrow streets, and the men were dressed
in all the outrageous, outlandish, idolatrous, extravagant,
thunder-and-lightening costumes that ever a tailor with delirium tremens and
seven devils could conceive of....[the bazaar] Crowding the narrow streets in
front of them are beggars, who beg forever, yet never collect anything and
wonder cripples, distorted out of all semblance of humanity almost...Turkish
women, draped from chin to feet in flowing robes, and with snowy veils bound
about their heads that disclose only the eyes....A street in Constantinople is a
picture which one ought to see once--not oftener."
"I did not think much of the mosque of St.
Sophia....It is the rustiest old barn in heathendom. ...The people who go into ecstasies
over St. Sophia must surely get them out of the guidebook....or else they are
those old connoisseurs from the worlds of New Jersey who laboriously learn the
difference between a fresco and a fireplug and from the day forward feel privileged
to void their critical bathos on painting, sculpture and architecture
evermore."
Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, 1869
When Twain visited Istanbul more than a century ago, the city lay entirely on
the European side of the Bosphorus, but it's character was entirely Oriental.
Today, the geography of Istanbul, half of the city in Europe and half in Asia,
is a perfect metaphor for its character. While Twain's sensibilities were
a little offended by the urban sprawl he saw when Istanbul was a city of a
million inhabitants, he could never have guessed what it would become not too
many years into the future. By far the worst thing to have happened to Istanbul
in its long, long history is the introduction of the internal combustion engine.
The city has swollen to more than 15 million inhabitants covering many, many
times the area of New York, and streets that seemed crowded and unsuited
to the foot and cart traffic of his time are now unbelievably clogged with
automobile traffic. And, nowhere on the streets can one see any evidence of
the exotic costumes that impressed Twain so much.
From the harbour one can still glimpse what Twain thought was "the
handsomest city we have seen". And, the old section of the city does, from
a distance retain much of the exotic appearance that Twain and others found so
attractive. However, the Bosphorus has become so clogged with ferry traffic and
commercial shipping that it's like looking at a watery version of I95 or Highway
101. The combination of urban sprawl, automobiles everywhere, and the
unbelievable traffic on the Bosphorus has made what was once so beautiful a
nightmare of pollution and overcrowding.
Fortunately, many of the historic sites in Istanbul may
be in a better state of preservation than when Twain visited and there are a few
which are now open to the public that Twain could not have seen. Today the
whole of the ancient walled city of Istanbul has been designated a World
Heritage Site.
When Byzantium (then settled by the Galatians of European
origin) was renamed Constantinople and became the new center of the Roman Empire
under Emperor Constantine, the city is said to have been established on seven
hills in an effort to replicate Rome in some way. For nearly a millennium, the
most important church in all of Christendom was the church of St. Sophia,
commonly known now as the Hagia Sophia - Hagia meaning divine or saint. The
present church was built by Emperor Justinian and incorporated ancient architectural
elements brought from around the Mediterranean. The main dome of the church
stands about 180 feet high and there is simply no way to truly understand the
engineering feat
accomplished 1500 years ago except by standing under that dome
and looking up. One can easily fit a small skyscraper under the dome. Currently,
restoration of the decorative surfaces of the dome are underway and the
scaffolding erected for that work is incredible to see. After the Ottomans
conquered Constantinople, the church was converted to a mosque and its beautiful
mosaics and decorative surfaces were plastered over for half a millennium -
until just
before World War II. Perhaps this is the reason Twain was unimpressed
with the Hagia Sophia. During the rein of the Ottoman Empire many mosques were
built in Istanbul, all of them replicating the domed architecture of the Hagia
Sophia with one to four minarets added at the corners. When Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk founded the Republic of Turkey in the 1930s, he wisely made the Hagia
Sophia a museum and began removing the plaster that covered the mosaics. As
a concession to its Islamic history he left up the large circular discs which
are inscribed in Arabic with the names of the leading figures in Islam.
Likewise, Twain was not able to see the mosaics in the
Kariye 
Museum, as it too
had been converted from a Christian church to an
Islamic Mosque. Today, the beautiful mosaics and decorative
surfaces are again visible. Nor was Twain
able to visit the Topkapi Palace and grounds built on the ruins of the ancient
Roman city, for at the time of his visit the Palace was still
occupied by
the Ottoman ruler. Many jewels from the Imperial Treasury of the Ottomans are on
exhibit in the Palace, as well a wonderful reliquary in the shape of a hand
displaying the hand bones of St. John the Baptist, hairs from the beard of
Muhammad, teeth and a 
footprint of Muhammad, and a staff belonging to Moses. The
whole effect far surpasses a Ripley's Odditorium.
Not long before Twain's visit to Istanbul, the Ottoman
ruler
built
Dolmabahce Palace on the western shore of the Bosphorus. It is
Beaux Arts-gone-wild architecture. The interiors are
over-the-top Gilded
Age decor, with incredibly elaborate floors
and crystal balustrades. When the Republic was formed Ataturk took up residence in this
Palace and died there
in 1938. The clocks in the Palace have all been stopped at
9:05am to commemorate Ataturk's death. It must have been about that time that
cleaning at the Palace ceased too. Even the two polar bear skins that were gift
from the Czar of Russia have come to look more like 
grizzly bears than
polar
bears due to the accumulated dirt of the last 60 years. Every visitor is
required to wear protective paper covers over their shoes when entering the
Palace. At first it seemed clear that it's a measure to protect the Palace,
but by in the end one becomes convinced it's a measure to protect the visitor.
Twain did visit the Yerbatan Cistern,
which was then called the
"Thousand and One Columns", because they did
not then know its purpose. It does indeed look like an underground collection of
columns, but we now know that it was one of many Roman 
water cisterns which
stored water for the city. Apparently, Twain did not visit the so called Blue
Mosque (perhaps because it would have been frowned upon by the Moslems then) or
the remnants of
the ancient Hippodrome outside it either. The only evidence of
the Hippodrome today is the raceway, now paved over with asphalt, and the
obelisk brought from the Temple of Karnak in Luxor Egypt. The Hippodrome was
once decorated with a magnificent bronze sculpture
of horses which was
moved to
Venice and can still be seen there. The Blue Mosque still functions as a mosque,
though visitors are now allowed in to admire its beautiful blue tile work (from
which it takes its name) and the overwhelming architecture of the
building.
No visit to Istanbul would be complete without a visit
to the Grand Bazaar which
covers an enormous area in the ancient city. One
can find
almost anything in the Bazaar, and while the Bazaar is a riot of objects, noise,
confusion, and smells, it is clearly not the same experience Twain endured when
he commented "the only solitary thing one does not smell when in the Great
Bazaar is something which smells good."
In an odd sort of way, Americans owe much to this
ancient city and the Ottomans who captured it in 1452 by building the fantastic Rumeli
Fortress at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus in just 120 days -
thereby cutting off any outside aid to their enemy. It was precisely because
the Ottoman Empire eventually controlled
all of the Eastern Mediterranean from Istanbul, that the Western European
countries were anxious to find some new route to the Indies for the much valued
spices they could provide. By the end of the 15th Century a Genoese sailor, with
the backing of the Spanish King and Queen, set out to find that route and the
rest, as they say, is history.
19th
Century Photographs of Istanbul
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accomplished 1500 years ago except by standing under that dome
and looking up. One can easily fit a small skyscraper under the dome. Currently,
restoration of the decorative surfaces of the dome are underway and the
scaffolding erected for that work is incredible to see. After the Ottomans
conquered Constantinople, the church was converted to a mosque and its beautiful
mosaics and decorative surfaces were plastered over for half a millennium -
until just
before World War II. Perhaps this is the reason Twain was unimpressed
with the Hagia Sophia. During the rein of the Ottoman Empire many mosques were
built in Istanbul, all of them replicating the domed architecture of the Hagia
Sophia with one to four minarets added at the corners. When Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk founded the Republic of Turkey in the 1930s, he wisely made the Hagia
Sophia a museum and began removing the plaster that covered the mosaics. As
a concession to its Islamic history he left up the large circular discs which
are inscribed in Arabic with the names of the leading figures in Islam.
Museum
