Istanbul Diary - Day 2 - more Topkapi

Continued from here

I wonder who these were supposed to be - nobility/guards?




Each of the pavillions or halls in the palace now house one collection - costumes, holy stuff, jewels and precious things, porcelain, etc. My favourite was the kitchen. (Surprised?!)

The paatrams were all arranged on display, not unlike what we used in India, and reminded me of my grandfather's home in Coimbatore, where a large joint family would need to be fed, and the kitchens had these huge vessels and ladles.  

Then there were these idly-stand like vessels, which I couldn't figure out, and some large mixing dishes for making pastry!

See the huge chimneys, reminiscent of an industrial-age factory.  As I looked up at them, I imagined the Ottoman kitchen in full swing, with these chimneys letting off smoke, and the clang of dishes, the head cook (I wonder what he was called?) barking out orders, .....  the organisaton probably put our modern day banquet halls to shame.

I looked up from within the kitchen and this is how the chimney looked!

So now, was this a corbeled roof or a real arch? hmmmm...

And the natural light coming in was a lot, because of the arched window spaces.

Coming to think of it, we didn't see a dining hall, I wonder where they ate.  In the harem, we were shown an unimpressive corridor, with a marble slab and were informed that, that was the concubines' dining room.

A huge draw was the Imperial Treasury rooms, filled with unbelievably huge stones.  According to me, most of it was not very aesthetic, or with fine workmanship.  Rather like the American war strategy, they were designed to shock and awe, I think!  It was almost as if there were so many stones, and they all had to be used.  So, okay 20, for this jug then, another 45 on that jar please, and maybe 200 for that chair!  Somebody owned an emerald mine, I'm sure, there were humungous ones.  (We were not allowed to take pictures, so the lack of personal  evidence).  There was an interesting story about one particular huge jewel being found by a layman in a dustbin, and the king of the time (spoilsport!) claimed it for the treasury.  There's Nadir Shah's throne as well - wasn't it looted from India?

The views....

Click on the pictures to enjoy the views in full.  We were lucky to visit the palace on a lovely, clear Mediterranean-like day.  A few days later, the skies turned hazy and cloudy and I''ms ure the views would not have been so picture-perfect.

Golden Horn from the Baghdad pavillion
In the picture is the Galata bridge, with the old city area on the left, and the new business districts on the right.  The right side, across the bridge, was the old Genoese areas.  The Golden Horn is fresh water, and is really the mouth of the rivers flowing into the Sea of Marmara.

The mouth of the Bosphorus straits

You can see the Bosphorus bridge in the background, with the land on the right being the Asian continent, while on the left is Europe.  In the foreground the old Palace walls can be seen

The Sea of Marmara, with the Princes Islands
The Princes Islands, in the background - no motorised transport there, only horse drawn carriages!  We didn't go there, though.

On to the Cisterns!