Day 5
The fifth day we went to the Topkapi palace, and saw the harem, and the residence of the sultans of the Osmannic empire. The sultans lived there until 1856.
Facts:
Topkapi Palace constructed by Fatih Sultan Mehmet, in 1478 has been the official residence of the Otoman Sultans and center of State Administration around 380 years until the construction of Dolmabahce Palace by Sultan Abdulmecid. The palace has currently 80.000 m2 area. It is located in Sultanahmet. From the palace you can see Marmara Sea and Bosphorus. The sultan lived in the palace with about 800 people in the kitchen staff, and 3000 harems women to serve him.
After we had visited the palace we went to the underground cisterns, which were a water resource for the population, if the city for instance got into war.
Our impression:
The palace was a wonderful and magnificent place to visit. When you step into the palace you will smell the history. You can feel that a bunch of women had lived there only to please the sultan. You can feel that so much history have been written there. It was quite clearly the main event on this trip. No discussion. After the breathtaking visit we were to go down and deep into Istanbuls Basilica Cistern. The sewers which the christians built and the muslims only discovered hundreds of years after they conquered Istanbul. Lots of fishes swam around in the water and some irresponsible and unsympathetic people threw coins at them. Of course we stopped them and asked them to treat animals decently.
In the night we went for dinner as a whole group and went back to the hotel as such.
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