Christina's visit to Istanbul

In mid-March (that's how far I am behind on this blog!), we had our first two visitors stay in our apartment at the Center. First my fellow grad student from USC, Nick, came for a few days. He was at the end of a 5-week or so trip all across Europe to photograph Roman art in major museums. He had not originally planned to visit Istanbul, but the lure of a free place to stay was too great, and I think he was pleasantly surprised by the richness of the collection in the Archaeological Museum here.

A couple of days after he arrived, my cousin Christina came as well, on her Spring Break from teaching middle and high school band in East Texas. For two nights the two of them shared our small apartment, and we all had a great time (at least I think so). Nick was a man on a mission, so he did not have a lot of time to play. But on his last morning in the city, he joined Christina and I for a tour of the Chora church (also known as the Kariye Camii). I have posted pictures of this magnificent church before, I believe. It is, quite literally, the site of some of the most important and well-preserved Byzantine fresco and mosaic work in the world.

While we were there we took the opportunity to stop by a nearby shop and visit our friend Volkan, who works there. He invited us to come to his house for dinner a couple of nights later, which we did do (more on that later).

Nick took off from the Chora for the airport, and Christina and I went on to Yedi Kule, the Turkish prison. Since I've written about that before also, I'm not going to recap it here, except to say that an older Turkish man gave us a "tour" this time. Since he didn't speak any English, he told us everything using pantomime. It was hilarious, even though he was mostly talking about people being shot with arrows, beheaded, and strangled. Between my basic Turkish and his wonderful pantomime, we "learned" that the hole in the floor of the inside of the Golden Gate was used by the Byzantines to throw the bodies of executed prisoners into the sewer system, where they would be disposed of by dogs, or washed out to sea and eaten by fishes (all of which he pantomimed). This is absolutely not true, but it was fun to watch him explain it anyway.

From there we crossed back to the side of the Horn I live on, and went to the top of Galata tower for some amazing view of the city.


CHRISTINA AT THE TOP OF THE GALATA TOWER

Since Christina and I were together the first time I ever visited Istanbul a few years ago, we have both done most of the "big" tourist attractions such as Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace. So once Nick left, we focused on some of the lesser-visited but interesting sites, and just tried to relax and have a good time, which she really needed!

The next day, Peter joined us for a daylong trip to the Prince's Islands, so-called because Ottoman sultans sometimes deposited potentially problematic brothers there to serve exile. In more recent times, the islands have become resorts, a place to escape the crowded bustle of Istanbul. We took the slow ferry from the European side of the city and island-hopped for several hours.


VIEW OF THE LANDING DOCK OF ONE OF THE ISLANDS WHERE WE DID NOT DISEMBARK


On Heybeliada we walked around and took in the view of the other islands and the horses that were wandering freely.







MEN WORK ON THEIR FISHING NETS


AN OLD OTTOMAN HOUSE

Then we climbed to the top of the island to visit the 11th-century Greek Orthodox monastery of Hagia Triada, which the groundskeeper was kind enough to let us into although it is not normally open to the public. We could not enter the buildings, which are now a boys' school, but we could look at all the wonderful animals!


AT THE GATES OF THE MONASTERY


AWWW...


HUH?

On Buyukada, literally the "Big Island," we were greeted by an amazing cacophany of sounds when we stepped off the boat. Although the islands can be very busy in the summer months, with holiday-makers from Istanbul and abroad, we were not expecting them to be so busy this early in the season. But what we did not realized was that with the Turkish elections only a couple of weeks away, all of the major political parties had set up their headquarters on the big island and were blasting their own personal theme songs! The entire island was covered with flags and banners, and it was madness!


ELECTION BANNERS EVERYWHERE

We were able to escape from this a bit by taking a horse-and-carriage ride (only service vehicles are allowed on the islands, no personal cars), around the island to see the gorgeous late Ottoman architecture.




IS THIS ONE HAUNTED?

Then Christina and I traded the horse cart in for donkeys (Peter was not interested, since we discovered in Petra that he is probably allergic) and rode up to the highest point of the island to see the church and monastery of Aya Yorgi, some parts of which date to the 6th century. Unfortunately it was not open, but the views of the islands were nice. They would have been nicer if the weather was clearer, but it was still pretty.




VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE ISLAND

Day three, Peter took Christina to the Pera Museum, a very nice small museum close to our apartment which houses, among other things, the famous "Tortoise Trainer" painting by Osman Hamdi Bey, the most well-known of Turkish artists. I stayed home to get some work done. In the afternoon, Christina and I went to the spice market and the nearby Yeni Camii which, although it is not one of the most famous of the many mosques in Istanbul, is quite beautiful.

Later that day we got on another ferry, this time a fast one, and made the trip
to the Asian side to visit Volkan and his girlfriend, Janset. She is an amazing cook, and it was great to have a homecooked meal. For Peter and I, it was the first time in several months! It was also nice for Christina to have a chance to see how the "real people" live in Istanbul.

The following day, because the weather forecast called for steady rain, we went to the archaeological museum, which Christina had not seen because we did not do our research before our first visit to the city, and had overlooked it. Afterward we visited a small textile shop in the same part of town. It was recommended to us by Amanda, the Fellow at the Center who is writing her dissertation on Ottoman cushion covers. The family that owns it is based in Antakya (Antioch), but they have this small shop in Istanbul also. They specialize in silk textiles, and you can watch a man working the loom right there in the shop. Their stuff is amazing, and fairly inexpensive compared to the fake examples you can find in other, more touristy, shops. Christina purchased several souvenirs, and we frustrated the owner by refusing to have tea (we didn't want to take the time).

That afternoon, we took advantage of the awful weather (it was cold and rainy almost the entire time Christina was here, unfortunately) to relax in the Chamberlitas hamam, one of the oldest and most opulent in the city. All I can really say about that is "Aaaahhhh...."

That night, we headed to another area of town to have dinner with our friend Marco, who works for the State Department. He had been very excited for a couple of weeks because a Chili's opened down the street from his house. He tries to pretend like it is his young son who is excited, but it is really him! Unless you have lived outside the U.S. for an extended period of time, it is simply not possible to understand how thrilling the opening of an American chain restaurant can be. Christina said she didn't mind having some American food, so we went there with Marco and his son and daughter. His wife Karen was unfortunately tied up at work, busily preparing for President Obama's visit.

The next day, we visited Dolmabahce palace, which was the home of the last six sultans. It was designed and built, at incredible expense, as a way of proving that the 19th-century sultans were as modern and cultured as their European ruler counterparts. The harem is also famous as the site of the death of Ataturk. The grounds and the buildings are amazing, and the decorations are unbelievably lavish.


THE GATE OF DOLMABAHCE



ONE OF THE PALACE GUARDS


THE FAMOUS CLOCKTOWER. CHRISTINA APPARENTLY HAS THE "CURSE OF THE SCAFFOLDING" AS WELL!

Neither of us paid for the extra ticket that would allow us to take photographs inside (but I won't make that mistake again, when I go with Peter). The most exciting moment of the Dolmabahce visit was when we were walking around the grounds and got a bit off the tourist path. Christina saw some peacocks wandering freely and wanted to go for a closer look. An old groundskeeper came out of a nearby building, probably to shoo us away. I spoke to him in Turkish and he was suddenly very excited, and asked us to come into his building. We had no idea what we were in for, but it turned out to be the Ottoman aviary, still in use! There were thousands of birds of all kinds inside. I have no idea why they maintain it, since it is not open to the public. What are they using the birds for? It is a mystery that none of my Turkish friends have been able to help me solve as of yet.

We picked Peter up for a quick lunch at the Ara Cafe, which is owned by Ara Guler, the most famous photographer of Istanbul. He is known worldwide as the "Eye of Istanbul." His photographs taken in the 1950s and 1960s are iconic. We have even seen him eating in the cafe on at least one occasion, but this time we just enjoyed the yummy food.

Next we visited the fortress of Rumeli Hisar, which was constructed by Mehmet the Conqueror in the 1490s when he was besieging Istanbul. It allowed him to control the waterway of the Bosphorus, and block off supply ships from reaching the Byzantines in the city. Because of its location on the water it is an absolutely gorgeous site to visit, although often overlooked by tourists. Highly recommended.





For Christina's last evening in town, we took her out to SantralIstanbul, the Ottoman power plant that I have blogged about before.






YOU KNOW US -- ALWAYS GETTING INTO THINGS!


OUR BODY HEAT PORTRAIT

It was an especially fun evening because there was a well-known band playing in Otto (the pizza place). They are called BaBa ZuLa and are very good.




BABA ZULA TAKES THE STAGE

It was a fun night, despite the fact that we had to fight to get on the free shuttle home, and even missed the first one because we were not willing to shove our way on. We were not so nice when the second one pulled up!

Despite the cold, wet weather and the fact that I was very busy with work while she was here, we did find some time to have fun and see some of the sites that neither one of us had experienced yet. Christina, I hope you had a good vacation!

Fieldtrip to Konya

Several weeks ago, we went with a group from the Research Center on a fieldtrip to Konya. Konya is a very religious, traditional city which is best known for its associations with Rumi (lived 1207-1273), also known as the Mevlana. Rumi was the founder of the famous religious order still known as the Whirling Dervishes, and he is buried here in Konya, where he lived most of his life. The religious beliefs that Rumi put forward in his writings are not always the same as those of mainstream Muslims. For example, many of his religious poems show what many Muslims would consider a very lax attitude towards following the dogma of religion, as well as a very open attitude about who might participate in the religious experience of his dervishes. From one of his most famous works:

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.

Despite the non-traditional nature of his religious teachings, his tomb is still regarded as an important place of pilgrimage for all Muslims, and the people of Konya, although very conservative in their own beliefs, are proud of their city's role as the home of the Mevlana.

The skyline of Konya , backed by gorgeous mountains, announces its religious devotion in all its interesting confusion. Look closely at the skyscraper in this picture:




DETAIL OF THE TOP OF THE SKYSCRAPER

Skyscrapers are considered by the citizens of Konya to be indicators that they are modern and advanced, so they love to construct them whenever possible. The top of this skyscraper in particular uses the forms of two important buildings: the lower pavilion-like section is based on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the holiest of Muslim sites, while the smaller section on top of that is the same shape as the tomb of Rumi, whose mysticism is both part of, and at odds with, mainstream Islam.

We took an overnight train from Istanbul to Konya, and when we arrived we found a frozen city, covered in snow. None of the mosques or museums we visited had heat, so by the end of each day we were fairly frozen!

The main point of the trip was to see some of the most important examples of Seljuk architecture. Scott, the Director of the Institute, is a Seljuk historian, so it was very educational to tour the sites with him. The Seljuks were a pre-Ottoman state that ruled much of Anatolia, into Persia, in the 11th-14th centuries. Konya was their capital, and much of their architecture remains.

Before seeing the buildings in town, though, we traveled outside the city to a caravansaray to see a fine example of the buildings that were used by caravans when they were traveling to and from Konya. This one is called Zazadin Han:



Our next stop was to see what is left of the original Seljuk walls of Konya. They are now to be found (and visited, if you have the right connections), in the basement of a "dershane", a center for test preparation. You can see all the college-prep test booklets stacked against them in the pictures.




Next we entered the Karatay Madrasa, (a madrasa, or medrese, as I have mentioned in previous posts, is a school for Quaranic learning). This building has been converted into a museum, and we were not supposed to take photos inside. I had, however, snapped one picture of the amazing tiled dome before they told us that. These tiles are especially amazing because the Seljuks did not have the technology to fire tiles with more than one color on them, so they had to fire each small piece of the design separately, in whatever shape they wanted, then fit them together to achieve the desired pattern:



From there we moved to another Madrasa, the Ince Minare ("Slender Minaret") Madrasa, which is now a museum of architectural elements such as stone and woodwork. Its highly-decorated carved portal is one of the most important remaining Seljuk monuments:



Our final stop of the day was the Alaeddin Camii, in the interior courtyard of which stand the tombs of most of the Seljuk rulers. None of my pictures of this are very good, probably because I was too cold to take anything decent by this point.

That night we were able to meet up at the hotel with a fellow Fulbrighter, Dee Dee from South Carolina, and her husband Michael. We were happy to hear that they love living in Konya, although it is a more difficult assignment because it is so much more traditional and conservative than Istanbul. Dee Dee was also able to join us for our tours the next day, which was nice.

We started our second day with a trip to the tomb complex of Rumi. It's greenish-blue tiled tower is the most recognized landmark of the city. No pictures are allowed inside, but in addition to the actual tombs of Rumi, his father, and various important individuals, we saw many other objects associated with the history of the Whirling Dervishes, such as musical instruments and manuscripts. It is really an amazing place to visit, and we highly recommend it.



After a nice lunch, we visited two more sites in town: the archaeological museum which, although not very well-kept or labeled, houses some very interesting objects, including this sarcophagus depicting the 12 Labors of Hercules:





Another interesting sarcophagus in the museum had an unusual version of the Jonah story. I've never seen him being swallowed headfirst before!



Next door to the museum is the Sahip Ata Kulliyesi, a dervish "convent." As with many of the other buildings we saw in Konya, the inside was beautifully tiled. Although the main central area has been rather harshly restored, the tomb area to the side is remarkable for the beauty of the tiling not only on the building, but on the coffins themselves:





The last goal of our tour was not in Konya itself, but in the nearby town of Beyshehir. Visiting required a drive of an hour and a half or so through beautiful snowy countryside:



The main attraction in Beyshehir is the Eshrefoglu mosque, one of a rare type of mosque with a wooden interior, beautifully painted. It was constructed in the Medieval period, late 13th century, and is in a remarkable state of preservation, considering that the columns, roof, and furniture are all made of wood:




A DETAIL OF THE CARVED AND PAINTED DECORATION AT THE TOP OF ONE OF THE COLUMNS

Beyshehir's other claim to fame is its location on the shores of Turkey's largest freshwater lake (for those of you who are wondering, Lake Van's water is part saline, part fresh), which shares the name Beyshehir. We were able to spend a half hour or so walking by the water and teaching Tsameret and Ilan's children to throw snowballs. Since they are from Israel, it was their first time to see snow!


BEAUTIFUL LAKE BEYSHEHIR


THE CITY SITS ON ITS SHORE, LOOKING VERY EUROPEAN


A HAPPY, BUT THOROUGHLY FROZEN, GROUP OF FELLOWS



Soon it was time to drive back to Konya to catch another overnight train back to Istanbul. We were prepared for a boring night: a little dinner, some chatting, then off to bed. But we found ourselves sharing the dining car with a group of young Turkish soldiers enjoying their last night of freedom before reporting for sniper training in Istanbul the next day. One of them had a guitar, and our "boring night" turned into hours of singing (and even some dancing) as we rode through the frozen Anatolian plain. It was definitely a night to remember!

Holy Land Trip Day 11: Jaffa

The final day of our trip was much less hectic, much more relaxing and, consequently, much less interesting than those before. We spent the day in Jaffa (ancient Joppa), which is now more or less a suburb of Tel Aviv. It was nice to be on the waterfront, and to see what there was to see, but it didn't blow us away.

A bit of the more modern history (as opposed to the ancient or Biblical history) of Joppa will set the stage:

There used to be a saying among German and Dutch sailors, when a task was particularly difficult, and there was small chance of survival or success. They would say that to carry out that task was "to go to Jaffa beach." This saying came from the fact that the water around the port of Jaffa is shallow and peppered with sandbars and rocks that it is difficult for ships to avoid. Pilgrims who arrived to the Holy Land via this port were often dismayed to find that their ship had to stop a great distance from shore, and that they then had to ride smaller boats, or even walk through the water, to get to the land. But yet it was an important port, and may well be one of the oldest in the world, used by both the Canaanites and the Philistines.

It was conquered by Napoleon on March 7, 1799, during his conquest of the Holy Land. He was so angered by the residents' resistance that when his soldiers finally broke into the city, he slaughtered its inhabitants. Many of his own soldiers then died of plague they contracted through proximity to all of the rotting corpses. Two years after that horrible event, visitors to Jaffa said they could still smell the stench of decaying bodies. Lovely place indeed!

But for a town that has seen so much violence, its modern incarnation is very pleasant and peaceful. It prides itself on being a home to contemporary artists, and expensive showrooms line most of the small streets. The restaurants along the water are popular hangouts for locals, and we had one of the best meals of our trip there.


LOOK, I'M A HISTORICAL SITE!

In fact, the first thing we did there was eat. We had breakfast at a well-known local establishment, the Aboulafia Bakery. I had a doughnut. A real doughnut, warm and rolled in granulated sugar. That may sound like a simple pleasure, but it was the first time in months I had had one, and eating it while sitting on a bench overlooking the sea was just wonderful.

Our first visit was to the Visitor's Center in Kedumim Square, where some ruins of Roman houses have been excavated and filled with amusing mannequins:



There was also an extremely entertaining film shown there.

Another other building of note in the square is the Monastery of St. Peter, built in 1891 over the ruins of a Crusader fortress:



Just off the square, up a small hill, is the Wishing Bridge. It is decorated with bronze images of the 12 signs of the zodiac, and if you stand clasping your sign and make a wish while looking out towards the sea, it is supposed to come true. I can verify that it does not work. Or maybe it didn't work for me because I could not reach far enough to touch both of my signs, Sagittarius and Capricorn, since I am one of those rare people born on a day that falls between two signs. We will have to go back to see if Peter's wish came true, because he wished that they would make a better-looking image of his zodiac sign (the ram) to put on the bridge.



Other sites in Jaffa include this interesting living statue:


A SUSPENDED ORANGE TREE IN THE ARTISTS' QUARTER.

Since the late 19th century, oranges have been the main export of Jaffa, and many of you have probably had some of the famous Jaffa oranges at some point.

Jaffa (Joppa) was also the port from which Jonah embarked when he tried to flee from God, and was eventually swallowed by the big fish (Jonah 1:3). A whimsical statue commemorates this event:



Joppa was also one of the places where the apostle Peter stayed for some time, at the house of a man named Simon the Tanner (Acts 9:43). The house is still there (sure), but it was locked when we went by.

For those more interested in ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the port of Joppa was famous as the site where Andromeda was chained up as an offering to a sea monster, and where Perseus swooped in with the head of Medusa and saved her. Here is the actual rock:


YES, THAT LITTLE ROCK OFF TO THE RIGHT OF THE PICTURE. WOW, RIGHT?

It's really not very impressive at all, especially when you consider how shallow the water is around it. Some seamonster!

It was a pleasant day, and just what we needed to unwind from the intense touring we had been doing for almost two weeks.

A JAFFA MYSTERY: WHAT IS THIS MACHINERY? ANYONE? DAN PERHAPS? FOY?




THIS IS IT IN A VERY DEEP HOLE

But we had one more task to complete before making it back to the Research Center that night. We were bringing Tsameret's two children back from Tel Aviv to Istanbul. I was slightly surprised that we were even allowed to leave the country with them, since they have Israeli passports and we do not.


SHEKED IN THE AIRPORT.


ILAN AND YUVAL.

Their father, Ilan, was able to come with us to the gate, but even so I would have thought security would have been tighter. But of course we are all glad it was not. The plane ride home was VERY bumpy -- much more than usual, even with some weather turbulence. The kids thought it was great fun, but Peter and I were quite nervous. Of course the littlest, Yuval, fell asleep only about 10 minutes before we landed, so for a few hours we were very busy entertaining two kids that we don't even share a language with! But it was fun, and we came out of it with a new respect for parents traveling with small children.

We finally made it back home, completely exhausted, but with much to contemplate. History, religion, politics -- the trip changed or augmented our understanding of many things. It was a very valuable experience indeed.