Topkapı Sarayı

Topkapı Sarayı, or Toptapı Palace housed Ottoman sultans from 1465-1853 and has housed up to 4,000 people at a time. It lost its importance as an official residence when, in 1853, Sultan Abdül Mecid I moved his court to Dolmabahche Palace, just up the coast. In 1924 Topkapı became a museum, and you can explore the harem, courtyards, mosque, the mint, a gallery of sultans' robes, weapons, shields, and armor, Islamic calligraphy, and Ottoman jewelry, precious stones and miniatures. Its all incredibly extravagant, and a very different feel from Dolmabahche. Here the beauty is in the details, the gold linings, the fact that certain stone paths are made with tiny raised stones rather than large, typical walkway stones so that a sultan's horse wouldn't slip on them, thus embarassing him in front of a crowd. There are a couple of adjacent museums housing Egyptian artifacts (the second one we didn't make it to), and you really need several hours to get through it all. 

The Egyptian museum was small and intimate; you walk right up to a portal sphinx or a sculpture of an early Egyptian king and there is no glass or plastic barrier between you and it. I saw examples of the evolution of cuneiform writing, including a display of "Interesting Cuneiform Documents." My favorite was the "Receipt of 4 sheep and one she-goat for the fee of a religious purification conducted by the exorcist Res-Marduk for Rimeni, wife of King Ninurta-Tukulti-Assur." Others included "The Oldest Love Poem," "Inanma Prefers the Farmer," and several "Short and Terse Business Letters." We also saw the earliest know parity peace-treaty, the Kadesh treaty. 

Musicians

Relief Orthostat. Late Hittite Period, 8th Cent. B.C. 

The central palace mosque

And some pictures from the Harem area, where the sultan's wife, mother, concubines and children lived, as well as the eunuchs who guarded them lived. Thats right, I said eunuchs.