Thursday, September 15, 2011

Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque

We went to Sultanahmet to be tourists and see the most important historical sites in all of Turkey. 

We visited the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. 

The Hagia Sofia was overwhelmingly beautiful. We spent hours there with our necks strained, looking up at the intricate details of the magnificent art and architecture surrounding us. 

The Blue Mosque was very quiet and peaceful, as it is still a working mosque and people were praying. Also, it reminded me, as well as my handy-dandy guidebook, of a Chinese museum because of the blue and white china decorating the walls (random thought? random Chinese museum). 

There were so many other tourists in Sultanahmet that we decided to come back another time to see Topkapi Palace and other historical sites. (Maybe by that time we won't be tourists ourselves?). I'm sure that after I start my class on the history of the Byzantine Empire I will return to these places and know so much more about them and appreciate them more as well. 


Inside the Hagia Sofia

Me and Ari standing where Byzantine Empresses would sit in their Thrones

Me going to Heaven?


Christian Mosaics in the Hagia Sophia

Inside the Blue Mosque

Me wearing a Headscarf in the Blue Mosque

Tomb of Sultan Ahmet I

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