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The Aya Sofya - the Church of the Divine Wisdom - was part of Emperor Justinian's restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. It remaned the greatest church in Christendom until the Ottoman conquest in 1453.
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The Imperial Door - only the emperor walks through this frame. As do tons of tourists today.
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I couldn't, for the life of me, take a good picture of the full magnificence of Aya Sofya, so I had to settle for pieces of it. Rhodesian clay bricks put the yellow in the enormous dome.
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A mosaic of the Madonna and Child in the apse.
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These 19th century medallions are inscribed with gilt with the names of Allah, Mohammed and some other caliphs, in Arabic.
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Some of the mosaics have been left unrestored - the potential of destroying them is far to great to disturb the alabaster.
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You can see how immense it is here - to get up to the gallery upstairs, you have to climb a serious of pretty steep ramps. Ramps, and not steps, because the emperor attended service from his private loge on this level, and would come up by horse.
Desiree Koh:
The archangel Gabriel.
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The Last Judgment, with the Virgin Mary on the left and John the Baptist on the right of Christ.
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Mary with Christ as a child, with Emperor John the Good and Empress Eirene.
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I am not sure what order they represent, but I happened to be in Aya Sofya at the same time as a group of priests and nuns. It was touching to watch their faith - this was perhaps when I truly understood the magnitude of the church's influence.
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Pasazade, an Osmanli mutfagi - Ottoman kitchen - for lunch. This was a little mezze of spiced crumbled feta and olive oil with flecks of capsicum.
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My first real meal, and it was intensely amazing - arap tava, which is fried minced beef and veal with green peppers and onion on a sweet humus.
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I stopped by Cigdem Pastaneri for dessert, which was not intended to be three different types of baklava, but as you can, was three different types of baklava. I don't know their names, but they are of pistachio and walnuts and superb. Cigdem is a family-
Desiree Koh:
A little glass of tea at Cigdem Pastaneri - I'm not sure what the tea-drinking etiquette is, because it's a bit too hot to lift up. Does one sip with the teaspoon until it's cool enough to touch the glass?
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Arrays and arrays of trays of Turkish pastries.
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Bear in mind that this is just ONE bakery in town. This is a common sight.
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Osmanli macunu, which is colorful melted sugar, each with a different flavor. Tell the guy what you want, and he twirls it up on a stick.
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The Blue Mosque, Sultan Ahmet I's response to the Aya Sofya.
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Named for the blueness of its ornate mosaic, the Blue Mosque was meant to surpass the grandeur of Aya Sofya but it doesn't quite come too close, although it is gorgeous.
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Constructed between 1606 and 1616, one reason could be that the mechanical engineering of the Blue Mosque is not quite as daring as that of Aya Sofya, despite being archiectured more than 1,000 years later.
Desiree Koh:
On Sogukcesme Sokak (Street of the Cold Fountain).
