Day 10 - Fly to Istanbul

Today we rise early and bid farewell to the Mediterranean coast. We head to the Antalya airport and fly back to Istanbul for three days in this amazing city. The city literally sits at the crossroads of continents. The main portion of Istanbul is in Europe. Cross the Bosporus into her eastern suburbs and you’re in Asia.

Inhabited as early was 300BC, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great moved his capital to this city in 324, and it soon became known as Constantinopolis, or Constantinople. Here he built a magnificent new capital city for the eastern empire. For a thousand years after Rome was sacked by barbarians and fell into ruin, Constantinople continued as the successor of Roman rule, but with the Greek language and culture as the norm.

The attribute that made the city so desirable, its incomparable location for trade and transport between three continents, was also its nemesis. For the next thousand years barbarians, Persians, Arabs, nomadic tribes, and even Venetians of the Fourth Crusade (who were the first to breech the city walls and governed the city for a time) attacked Constantinople. The city was strongly fortified with great walls, but finally fell to the Ottoman Turks on May 29, 1453.

It then became the capital of the Ottoman Turks, who rebuilt many parts of the city. The great ruler Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566) built the Topkapi palace on the same site was the Byzantine palace and the Ottomans ruled their far-flung empire from within its walls. Its name was changed to “Istanbul.”

Today, we’ll visit wonders from both Byzantine Constantinople and Ottoman Istanbul. From the airport we’ll travel the coast road to our hotel in the Sultanahmet area – the heart of this ancient city. Sites in this area are so compact that the rest of the day will be a walking tour.
We’ll start in the Byzantine Hippodrome – a race track and stadium for sporting events that were the favorites of both emperors and common people. We’ll see an Egyptian obelisk moved to the site from Egypt and other historic remains.
We’ll walk across the street and see one of the Islamic wonder of the city, Sultanahmet Camii, popularly knows as the Blue Mosque. The mosque became known in the west as the Blue Mosque because of the predominantly blue tiles of the interior.

The architect of the mosque, Sedefhar Mehmet Aga, was given a mandate to spare no expense in creating a magnificent and beautiful place of Islamic worship. The basic structure of the mosque is a near-cube, measuring 53 by 51 meters. As is the case with all mosques, it is aligned so that when worshipers perform their prayers, they are facing Mecca, with the mihrab or prayer niche in front of them.
Here we will need to remove our shoes. Women will need to have their shoulders and upper arms covered. Slacks, caprice, or knee length skirts. A headscarf to cover your hair is helpful. Men should not wear tank tops or shorts.
A Turkish boy visiting the Blue Mosque to celebrate his sünnet. We'll explain later.

After the mosque, we’ll walk across a beautiful garden to see one of the great sites of all time, the Holy Wisdom Church – the Hagia Sophia.

“The Church of the Divine Wisdom (Hagia Sophia in Greek) is one of the most impressive and important buildings ever constructed.” It is called by several names: Hagia Sophia in Greek, Ayasofya in Turkish.

It was built on the site of Byzantium's acropolis by Emperor Justinian in 537 AD, Hagia Sophia was the greatest and largest church in Christendom until St. Peter's Basilica was re-built in Rome a thousand years later.

During Ottoman times, it was converted to a mosque. In the early Turkish Republic, the progressive leader Mustafa Kemal “Atatürk” wanted the site to be enjoyed by all and converted it to a museum.

The 30 million gold mosaic tiles which cover the church's interior are now being restored and this means the interior will be filled with scaffolding. You will still find it perhaps the most amazing site you have ever visited.

After our visit, we hope to stop for lunch at a Istanbul institution, “Meshur Sultanahmet Köftecisi”, a small restaurant that specialized in Turkish Kofte.

After lunch, we’ll cross the street and visit a Byzantine cistern, called Yerebatan Saray Sarniçi, or the Basilica Cistern. It covers 2.4 acres and has a capacity of over 21 million US gallons, and is held in place by 336 marble columns. You’ve seen this in the film “From Russia With Love”.
Finally, we visit the ornate Ottoman Palace, home of the Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years. Topkapi means "Palace of the Cannon Gate” and this place is filled with beautiful tiled courtyards and treasures gathered from all over the empire.
As an option, you may choose to visit the Istanbul Archaeological Museum with Al instead. It houses many items of interest and importance to Biblical history from all over the vast Ottoman empire.
We’ll walk back to our hotel and you’ll be ready to get off your feet and enjoy an evening in this amazing city.