a frame from Chora Church

Chora church, Kariye museum, Kariye müzesi, Edirnekapı, İstanbul, pentax k10d

winter season in Istanbul

Beşiktaş, Serencebey yokuşu, pentax k10d

we dont see snow for every year. This year was cold and snowy.  Some photos from 2010 winter

Tulip : Color of the April

Istanbul Tulip Festival, İstanbul Lale Festivali, İstanbul, Pentax K10d

I am trying to publish all of  my tulip archive.

Be like the sun for grace and mercy.
Be like the night to cover others’ faults.
Be like running water for generosity.
Be like death for rage and anger.
Be like the Earth for modesty.
Appear as you are.
Be as you appear.
Mevlana

cool day in Grand Bazaar, İstanbul

Grand Bazaar, Kapalıçarşı, İstanbul, pentax k10d

GRAND BAZAAR

After the conquest of Constantinople by Mohammed  the Conqueror, he  ordered bazaars, shops, caravansarais, houses and mosques to be built.

The covered bazaars built for selling fabric were called “Bedesten” in the East. Later all sorts of valuable objects were started to be sold here.

The Bedesten built at Conqueror’s time, near the old palace was later called “Ancient Bedesten”, “Internal Bedesten” or “ Bedesten of Cevahir” . “The Covered Bazaar” or “The new Bedesten”was  built a little further. One of its streets was allocated for cotton products and the other was allocated for a type of fabric woven with silk called “sandal” That’s why it was called also “ Sandal Bedesteni” Both of the Bedestens have the characteristics of the Conqueror’s era.

Grand Bazaar, Kapalıçarşı, İstanbul, pentax k10d

The rich people and the merchants could keep their jewels and other object of gold and silver

iIn small safes in the Bedesten by paying a small fee.

details of Hagia Sophia

hagia sophia museum, ayasofya müzesi, Sultanahmet, İstanbul, Pentax K10d

The History of the Hagia Sophia

The Byzantine Church of Hagia Sophia stands atop the first hill of Constantinople at the tip of the historic peninsula, surrounded by the waters of the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn on three sides. It was built by Justinian I between 532 and 537 and is located in close proximity to the Great Palace of the Emperors, the Hippodrome, and the Church of Hagia Irene. The third known church to be built at its site since 360, the Justinian church replaced the smaller basilica built by Theodosius II in 415, which burnt down in the Nika riots against Justinian I and Empress Theodora. Beginning construction immediately after suppressing the revolt, Justinian commissioned physicist Isidoros of Miletus, and mathematician Anthemios of Thrales (today’s Aydin) to build a church larger and more permanent than its precedents to unify the church and reassert his authority as the emperor. There is little that remains from the earlier churches beside the baptistery and the skeuophylakion. The skeuophylakion, a round building that houses the patriarchal treasure, is located off the east corner and the baptistery, which was converted into an Ottoman tomb in 1639, stands to the southwest.

The grand dome of the Hagia Sophia, an impressive technical feat for its time, is often thought to symbolize the infinity of the cosmos signified by the Holy Soul to which the church was dedicated. It took five years to reconstruct the dome after it collapsed in an earthquake in 557. The new dome, which is taller and braced with forty ribs, was partially rebuilt after damage in the 859 and 989 earthquakes. Plundered during the Latin invasion following the Forth Crusade in 1204, the church was restored under Andronicos II during Palaeologan rule. The great southeast arch was reconstructed after the 1344 earthquake. As the Cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for over a thousand years, with the brief exception of the Latin occupation, the Hagia Sophia was the center of Eastern Christianity from 360 to the Ottoman conversion. Its importance as the center of religious authority in the Byzantine capital was compounded with its role as the primary setting for state rituals and pageantry. The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, which put an end to the Byzantine Empire, began the era of Islamic worship in the holy structure, which Mehmed II converted into a mosque immediately after his conquest.

Known then on as the Ayasofya Mosque, the Hagia Sophia remained the Great Mosque of the Ottoman capital until its secularization under the Turkish Republic In 1934. Little was modified during the initial conversion when a mihrab, a minber and a wooden minaret were added to the structure. Mehmed II built a madrasa near the mosque and organized a waqf for its expenses. Extensive restorations were conducted by Mimar Sinan during the rule of Selim II; the original sultan’s lodge was added at this time. Mimar Sinan built the Tomb of Selim II to the southeast of the mosque in 1577 and the tombs of Murad III and Mehmed III were built next to it in the 1600s. Mahmud I, who ordered a restoration of the mosque in 1739, added an ablution fountain, Koranic school, soup kitchen and library, making the mosque the center of a social complex. Perhaps the most well known restoration of the Hagia Sophia was completed between 1847-49 during the rule of Abdülmecid II, who invited Swiss architects Gaspare and Guiseppe Fossati to renovate the building. In addition to consolidating the dome and vaults and straightening columns, the two architects brothers revised the decoration of the exterior and the interior. The discovery of the figural mosaics after the secularization of Hagia Sophia, was guided by the descriptions of the Fossati brothers who uncovered them a century earlier for cleaning and recording. An earlier record of the Hagia Sophia mosaics is found in the travel sketches of Swedish engineer Cornelius Loos from 1710-1711.

Hagia Sophia Museum, Sultanahmet Square, Ayasofya Müzesi, Sultanahmet Meydanı, İstanbul, Pentax K10d

Church of Saints Sergios Bacchos (Küçük Ayasofya Camii)

Church of Saints Sergios Bacchos (Küçük Ayasofya Camii)

The Church of Saints Sergios and Bacchos was built by Justinian before he became emperor in 527. It has the form of a vaulted octagon with niches on the diagonal sides that is envelopped by a ambulatory with two storeys. Originally it formed a double church together with the basilica of St. Peter and Paul that disappeared already in the early middle byzantine time. The church of Sergios and Bacchos still exists as a mosque. The similarity of its architectural carving to that of Hagia Sophia was the reason why the Ottomans gave it the name of “Small Hagia Sophia”.

tulips, tulips …

Istanbul tulip festival, Istanbul lale festival, 2010, Emirgan park, pentax k10d

tulip festival starts with celebrations in Emirgan Park

Five Lines

To overcome lies in the heart, in the streets, in the books
from the lullabies of the mothers
to the news report that the speaker reads,
understanding, my love, what a great joy it is,
to understand what is gone and what is on the way.

Nazim Hikmet

İvazefendi Camii, Ayvansaray, İstanbul

İvazefendi Camii, Ivazefendi mosque, Ayvansaray, İstanbul, pentax k10d

built by Mimar Sinan at 1585  for Kazasker Ivaz Efendi over old Byzantium pension’s basement.

İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzesi

Twenty galleries filled with artifacts gathered from all over Turkey and the Near East celebrate 5,000 years of history with exhibits from Byzantium, the Ottoman Empire and the many civilizations of Anatolia and ancient Egypt. The main building houses the finds of nineteenth-century archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey, in particular the famous fourth-century Alexander sarcophagus discovered at the royal necropolis of Sidon in Lebanon. The Museum of the Ancient Orient contains artifacts from Egypt and Mesopotamia.  (from Yahoo Travel)

5th İstanbul Tulip Festival 2010

İstanbul tulip festival, İstanbul lale festivali, 2010, pentax k10d

from Emirgan Park