Salla VartiainenVisiting the blue mosque and the GRAND bazaar! – Istanbul day 3
Originally posted: 240502
I’m standing between Hagia Sofia and Sultan Ahmet Camii in Istanbuls Sultanahmet area. I,ve just arrived and the site of the two architectonic wonders is impressive.
Hagia Sofias redish tiling and Sultan Ahmets led roofs that turn blue from facing the sky.
And in between – a park with light green trees and carefully manicured shrubbery.
Hagia Sofia is really big
My mind drifts off to old oriental paintings from the time when the industrial revolutionist kingpins had gained big enough of fortunes to become world explorers.
Istanbul. The magic orient.
I look around at the hoards of tourists that are spread all over the park. People are coming and going and the selfie-game is strong in the Hagia Sofia direction. Now we are all world explorers, fortunes or not.
What does it mean when a place of worship turns into a tourist attraction?
Does the purpose of the place get diluted? Is it disrespectful to let non-believers into the hearts of holy places when their only goal is to take pictures for instagram? Or is it on the contrary – a way of spreading the word of god?
A man approaches me while I’m standing there pondering. He tries to sell me a turkish carpet. “The shop is not far away” he says. But I’m distracted by my thoughts and wish him luck with the next customer. Then I head to Sultan Ahmet Camii.
The blue mosque aka Sultan Ahmet Camii
The blue mosque aka Sultan Ahmet Camii
The queue is massive. And although it´s moving quite fast it still takes an hour before we can enter. A scarf is borrowed to me so I can cover my head. I take off my shoes and enter the mosque.
The massive queue and me in a head scarf
Wow! The domes and pilars reaching for the sky are high high.
Beautiful ornaments in turquoise, lapiz lazuli and terracotta creates symmetric patterns all over the roof and walls.
The pilars golden calligraphy seems to glow and the blue and white çini tiles on the walls makes me wish i could inspect them closer.
The blue mosque has 260 stained glass windows, they were originally made from Venetian stained glass and the glass was a gift from Signoria of Venice. The windows have since been replaced.
The traditional Iznic çini tiles that have given the mosque the name the Blue mosque. They were especially comissioned for the mosque and have over 50 different tulip motifs
I spend around 20 minutes marveling around in the mosque.
Then I get my shoes and return the borrowed headscarf. It’s time to go to the grand bazaar.
The grand bazaar
The grand bazaar is located in the Fatih area of Istanbul. It’s quite close to the blue mosque so I decide to walk there. The narrow alleys leading to the market are filled with cozy small restaurants so I stop for lunch on the way.
The grand bazaar is a popular place.
The bazaar has 21 entrances and around 4000 different shops. It doesnt take long before i get lost. Shops are filled with everything imaginable. Clothes, spices, beautiful pashmina scarfs, lamps, turkish delight, antiques, handbags, gold. One shop even has a strange looking mask from the republic of Congo.
A happy small man named Muhammet is operating a spice shop. He gives me small cups to taste the tea and some turkish delight to go with it. He has been to Sweden three times and he especially liked Stockholm. I buy some flower-tea from him and head to the tram to go back to the European side of the Bosphor.
Flower tea in all different shapes. Muhammat had tea for everything – diabetes, relaxation, weightloss, energy, you name it!
On the tram I´m thinking about my day. I´m looking at the view outside, when I suddenly realize that travelling with strange herbmixes in your hand luggage may not always be very wise..
xoxo/Salla V
Originally posted: 240502