Cıty Tour

Hagia Sophia

The meaning of Hagia Sophia is Holy Wisdom, located in the Sultanahmet district of the European part of Istanbul.

Built by Constantine the son of the founder of the Eastern Roman Empire Constantine in the second half of the fourth century but it was burned by a revolution in 404 AD, then restored, but in 532 AD it was completely burned and destroyed, and then Emperor Justinian, who put down the revolution built the largest church in the world on the ruins of the old church and was completed in 537 AD.

Its construction method combines Roman, Middle Eastern, Asian and Mesopotamian architecture.  Although the building was unique at that time, but there were some mistakes, the most important of which was the size of the dome, which put too much pressure on its sides which led to its collapse in 558 AD, and instead built a higher and slightly smaller dome.

When Sultan Mohamed II opened Constantinople, he spent a lot of money to restore the ruined church at that time due to the limited resources of the Roman Empire and turned it into a mosque through the most famous architects of that time, the architect Sinan, and held Friday prayers the next day to open the city.

Later on, the mihrab, minbar and four minarets were added.

• The first minaret, which color tends to red, was built by Sultan Mohammed II.

• The second minaret in the direction of the TopKapi Palace and built by Sultan Bayezid II.

• The third and fourth minarets were built by architect Sinan under the order of Sultan Murad III.

In the era of Sultan Mahmoud II  the famous calligrapher Mustafa Pasha engraved on a hanged skin words of Allah  ,Mohammed ,Abu Bakr, Omar , Uthman ,Ali, Hassan and Hussein with a diameter of seven and a half meters.

The most important characteristic of the Hagia Sophia is the mosaics of the Justinian era, which does not take a specific shape, and the dome above the entire building, which is based on four columns, carrying four imaginary forms of angels covered with faces. The dome diameter from north to south is 31.87 meters and from east to west 30.87 and the height of between 55 and 60 meters. It is not in the form of a complete circle because of the large number of repairs and because Islam prohibit the paint pictures of living beings , the mosaic and paints were covered with Gypsum , but it was revealed when the building became a museum.

One of the wonders of Hagia Sophia is the Column with sweat with a bronze hole in the center, which is believed to achieve wishes by simply rubbing it with a thumb.

In its garden there are tombs of several Sultans, namely Mustafa I, Sultan Ibrahim, Sultan Ibrahim, Sultan Selim II, Sultan Murad III and Mohammed III.

The Hagia Sophia remained a church for 1093 years and a mosque for 480 years before the Turkish government turned it into a museum in 1935 under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk era.

Sultan Ahmad Mosque

Also known as the Blue Mosque, one of the most beautiful mosques in the Islamic world.

Located in Sultanahmet Square, south of the Hagia Sophia Museum and the Eastern Hippodrome

Sultan Ahmad I (14 years old when he took over and died at the age of 28) ordered the engineer Sadafkar Mohammed al-Agha, a student of Architecture  Sinan, to build it in 1609 AD and took seven years to build.

The mosque consists of a royal palace, a charity, a school, a hospital, Turkish baths, a water cistern, rooms for knights and shops, but most of these buildings have been destroyed and the remaining parts include the school and tomb of Sultan I.

The main entrance to the mosque contains a gate in the name of the serial gate. It is said that the sultan placed a chain on the door so that anyone who wants to enter will have to bend under the chain in order to respect the house of God and this gate is covered with a dome decorated with inscriptions and phrases.

The mosque consists of five large domes and eight small domes and is the last great mosque built during the period of Ottoman architecture.

The mosque is topped by six minarets and there is an untruthful story about these minarets. It was criticized in its construction, where the Sacred Mosque in Mecca contained six minarets and Sultan Ahmed received great criticism for likening his mosque to the Holy Mosque. In fact, the Sacred Mosque already had 7 minarets a century before the construction of the Blue Mosque.

The courtyard of the mosque is large and paved with marble and there is a stream of water in its middle.

The Sultans used to build a mosque that would greet his name with the construction of a number of terraces commensurate with his rank in the dynasty. Sultan Ahmad was the 16th Sultan and therefore built the mosque with 16 balconies.

The inner part of the mosque has a wide area of ​​70 meters long and 68 meters wide. The diameter of the dome is 23.5 and its height is 43 meters. The mosque is covered with 21043 pieces of blue porcelain, which carries the drawings of the plant, so as to give the mosque a natural appearance.

The shutters of the doors and windows were decorated with pearls, and on the sides of the mihrab were large candlesticks, a piece of black stone, a gilded pulpit, alabaster and marble.

Grand Bazaar

Known as the Grand Bazaar or the covered market and the reason for naming since ancient times when traders were forced to cover the corridors in order to protect it from changing weather conditions and exposure to rain and dust and remained today to maintain this system of coverage, which in the form of roofs and domes with windows dedicated to ventilation.

The market was built during the reign of Sultan Mohamed El Fateh in 1461 AD and it took about four years to build. Sultan Sulaiman al-Qanuni expanded it in the sixteenth century. The purpose of its construction was to serve the Hagia  Sophia mosque.

It is  located in the Beyazid area, close to the Hagia  Sophia and the Blue Mosque, with an area of 30.000 square kilometers and has eleven doors, most famous are BHagia zid , Mahmoud Pasha ,Nur Ottoman ,and Bab Urgo, Bab al-Souq and Bab al-Munjdeen.

The market includes ten mosques, sixteen waterways and 4399  different shops. Each department has a specific type of shops. It has many handicrafts. The owners of each craft gather together in a department. Each place is named after the craft such as the Gold Street, Copper street ,Carpenter street,  Haddadin Street.

The market also includes a variety of shops including gold, precious stones, antiques, hand-made utensils, carpets, leather, and Turkish sweets.

Grand Bazaar features the Schiffhurst Biedstein Hall, the oldest hall in which there are precious artifacts, jewelry, watches, antiques and silverware.

Egyptian Market

Also known as spice and *Attarin* market.

It was originally called the New Bazaar. The purpose of the building was to finance the construction of the new mosque. The name was later changed to the Egyptian market due to the importation of coffee and spices from India and South Asia to Egypt and Istanbul through the Mediterranean.

It was built by Sultan Murad III in 1597 and was completed by order of Sultan Turhan by the architect Kazim Agha after 67 years and remained the main center for spice trade for more than two centuries.

The Egyptian market has six entrances and is characterized by its L-shape and contains 89 shops.

There are 21 gold shops in addition to the shops of gifts and clothing and sweets and is the second largest bazaar in Istanbul for business.

The upper part of it was a court for resolving disputes between the public and the merchants

TopKapi Palace:

One of the largest and oldest palaces in the world with an area of ​​700,000 square meters and has walls of about 5000 meters. Initially constructed 1478 by Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, It was initially named Yenni Saray which ment the new palace, then later in the  era of Mahmoud I and after the burning and renovation it was renamed to Top Kabi meaning the gate of the cannon. Topkapı Palace was the  residence of the Ottoman sultans for 400 years.

Topkapı Palace was built on a high hill (one of Istanbul's seven hills) and above the highest point near the sea. It is surrounded by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, where the upper hippocampus of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium Including water storage tanks under the second courtyard of the palace and also a Byzantine church became known as the Palace Church. The palace was not a high-class luxury, it was a group of buildings with corridors, courtyards and green gardens.

The palace consisted of four main courtyards, a number of houses, kitchens, a hospital, a mosque and a board accommodates over 4000 people, in addition to the 400-room for women (Haramlek section ).

In the 18th century, Sultan Ahmed III built a water (Sabeel) or fountain in the foreground of the palace, engraved with a poetry poem of 14 verse.

Courtyards and Doors,

There is the door of the Sultanate or the door of the empire which opens on the first courtyard, the door overlooking the HAGIA SOPHYA and has been repaired several times , above it there is  the seal of Sultan Mohammed II and a writing about the establishment date of the door in 1478 AD ,and another writing showing the date of the reconstruction of the door by Sultan Abdul Aziz in 1867 AD.

First courtyard: It includes a hospital, bakery, wood hut, royal coin factory and the church of Ayia Ireni (Holy Peace), the first Roman Catholic church of the fourth century AD.

Peace Door , leads to the second courtyard was rebuilt during the era of Sultan Murad III , above it is  a writting (There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger)

The second courtyard has palace's main buildings and the council hall, which usually hosts guests of other countries .

Also there are the  usual kitchens where food was prepared for 5,000 people

The pottery vessels of China, Japan and Turkey of different eras are now exhibited there.

In addition to the Royal Stables, where the horses of the sultans rest.

The women suite (haremlek) consists of 400 rooms and can only be reached through the door of the carriages, where the wife of the Sultan and the women's footnote live and supervised by the Sultan's mother. It also contains the library of Sultan Ahmed III.

Weapons Section: It contains weapons from the time of the Romans , Swords of Hungary ,in addition to the ancient Ottoman weapons and Persian weapons.

Watches Section : It includes a collection of rarer watches and the oldest ever.

Happiness Door : opens on the third courtyard where there is the inner palace which houses the Sultan's suits and only one is allowed to pass through the Sultan's permission. Most of the religious ceremonies and celebrations were held in front of the door of happiness.

Third courtyard: The treasury, contains most of the precious golden and silver objects in the palace, such as the throne of Sultan Murad IV and the Topkapi dagger, a dagger decorated with emeralds, diamonds and Gashkaji diamond .

Next to the treasury there are other sections containing the gifts that were sent from India and China, including Arab and Persian models, tools and blades of writing and images of sultans.

The clothing section of the sultans: The clothing contains 29 Sultana from Mohammed Al-Fateh to Sultan Abdel-Majid and clothes of their sons.

The room of the Holy belongings : It was established by Sultan Mohammed II and contains the dress of Prophet Muhammad's *peace and blessings be upon him* , his sword his arch and the footprints of his holy feet , some of the hair of his beard and the belongings of his companions and their swords and the Koran of our master Osman bin Affan made of leather, Which he was reading when he was killed and still has some traces of his blood on it , also there are the key to the Kaaba and its lock , and two covers of the holy Kaaba ,also and the vessel of our master Abraham and the turban of Sidna Yusuf as well as the stick of our master Moses peace be upon them all and other prophets before our master Muhammad.

The Fourth Courtyars: It contains a number of palaces (compartments) namely:

The marble palace and the palace of Rouen (the turban room), which was built to commemorate the opening of Rouen by Sultan Murad IV in 1636 AD, in where preserves the turban of the sultans.

Sufa Palace ,was previously known as Qara Mustafa Pasha Palace, the minister who built it.

Palace of Magidia ,built by Sultan Abdul Majeed I and contains a room for clothes and Sufa Mosque.

The Palace of Baghdad ,was built by Sultan Murad IV in honor of the conquest of Baghdad in 1639 AD.

The palace of the Eftariya was built by Sultan Ibrahim I in 1640 and was used for breakfast during the holy month of Ramadan and receives visitors during the religious holidays.

The Chamber of Circumcision was built by Sultan Ibrahim and named after it because it was used to circumcise the sons of Sultan Ahmed III.

The Head of the Doctors' Room, has another name, the Pasha Lala Tower, means large tower of teachers. It was in the shape of a tower and was used to prepare medicines. The head of the doctors was under the supervision of the chief teacher  who is responsible for teaching the sons of the Sultan.

The palace was gradually losing its importance after the built of  Dolma Bahá'íh Palace by Sultan Abdul Majid I and the moving to it.

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish government transformed the palace into a museum in 1924 and was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1985 BD

Horse Racing Square,

Near  Sultanahmet mosque located a square known as the Sultanahmet Square.It was previously a race track for horses and military vehicles in the Byzantine era. It was built by Emperor Constantine the Great. The field was a horseshoe length 480 meters long and 117 meters wide. It has several historical landmarks,

The Egyptian obelisk , was founded in the 15th century BC and was built by Pharaoh Thutmose III. It is 20 meters high and is made of pink granite. It contains hieroglyphic inscriptions, which glorify Pharaoh Tuthmosis. Below there are Latin and Greek writings as well as drawings of the construction of the monument and the race of vehicles. It had been transferred by Emperor Theodosius I from Egypt to Constantinople in 390 AD across the sea to express the control of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The cranial column or platia loader

Was built by the Greeks in honor of their victory over the Persians in the fifth century BC and built this bronze column by melting the swords of the Persians and was eight meters long and consisting of three snakeheads with each other. Constantine I moved the column from the Temple of Apollo in the Greek city of Delphi to Constantinople in 330 AD, and is currently One of these heads was in Istanbul Museum and the rest was destroyed or stolen.

The stone obelisk ,  the date of its creation is not specifically known. It had a golden bronze cover and a copper sign in the 10th century during the era of Constantine VII, but during the Crusade in 1204 the cover was looted and destroyed.

German Water Stream or Fountain,

İt was a gift of Emperor Wilhelm II to Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1902 commemorating the Turkish-German friendship. It was fully built in Germany and transferred to Istanbul, consisting of eight columns of rare granite with a dome above , Othman added to it gilded inscriptions on the roof and at the entrance to the fountain there are writings in German language.

Basilica Underground Cistern

Also known as the Yerebatan Sarnici (Sunken Cistern), the submerged reservoir

The Cistern is located near the left side of Sultanahmet Square and on the southwestern tip of Hagia  Sophia.

It was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I between 527 and 565 AD on the same spot as Basilica (the rectangular building). The building was used for scientific and artistic activities during the period of the restoration of the Hagia  Sophia and 7,000 slaves used to built it.

 The Cistern connect between the Valencia arch, 971 meters with the Maglova Archipelago built by Constantin I in 368 AD.

It consists of a rectangle of 140 meters long and 70 meters wide. It includes 336 columns, each of which is 9 meters high (some of them are made of marble, others are granite, some are cylindrical and a few are square shaped. Some columns have inscriptions known as chicken eyes, slanting branches and tears. Columns of the inscription of tears were built in commemoration of the slaves who died during the construction process) and the distance between each column and the other 4.80 meters and there are 12 rows of columns and the weight of the ceiling distributed to the columns through the arches in the form of crescent and spherical vaults and made the walls of brick thickness of 4.80 meters and ground made of bricks, the floor was made of water resistant bricks with a thick layer of Khurasan mortar.

The tank is characterized by the presence of two heads of a medusa used as a base for two pillars in the northern corner of the reservoir.

The water was replenished the reservoir from the forests of Belgrade and provided water to the big Palace of the Byzantine emperor, which was located in the area of ​​Saray Borno.

The reservoir was repaired several times during Ottoman rule by Sultan Ahmed III by Eng. Mohammed Al Agha and Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The reservoir was not used by the Ottomans because they prffered running water and they built their own water systems.