While I tried to learn a few basic Turkish phrases before I went to Istanbul, I ended up mostly relying on my Turkish-speaking friends and English-speaking Turks to get around. Although Turkish used to use Arabic script and almost a quarter of its vocabulary comes from Arabic loanwords, its grammar is dramatically different from Arabic and I couldn’t easily make heads or tails of it. To me, Turkish sounded like an odd hybrid of Arabic and German, and is written in the Latin Alphabet with a few special letters.
My journey to Turkey began with a very early flight from Beirut, which gave me time to read up a little on Turkish history before I arrived. I was glad that I did, since I found out that the day of my arrival marks the day that the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, died in 1938. His time of death, 9:05 AM, is traditionally marked by a minute of silence around the country. This prepared me to know what was going on when my bus from the airport pulled over and everyone stood in the aisle for a minute in silence.
The first thing I noticed about Istanbul was that it was far colder than Beirut. It has barely gone below 60 degrees in November here, yet Istanbul varied between 30-50 degrees while I was there. I also immediately noticed that the Turkish currency, the Turkish Lira, is fairly strong ($1 = 1.8 TL) and that Istanbul is a fairly expensive city. While it was tempting to divide all costs in half during the trip, I would have to realize that wouldn’t be a wholly conversion.
The bus ride from the airport was very interesting, as it marked my official crossing from Asia to Europe when I crossed the Strait of Bosphorous. Additionally, I noticed how Turkey looked fairly green and hilly yet had dozens of mosques everywhere.
Crossing the Bosphorous from Asia to Europe
Turkey is seen by some as European and some as Middle Eastern, and the city of Istanbul reflects this fairly well. While there’s a large modern downtown, a modern metro system and above-ground rail line, and several polished streets offering high-end shopping, there other areas with open markets and more chaotic streets that reminded me of the Arab countries I’ve lived in. Additionally, one of the most noticeable features of Turkey is the omnipresent face of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. While Lebanese political parties tend to put up posters depicting their leaders and Mubarak’s face was never too hard to find during my time in Cairo in 2009, Ataturk is far more ubiquitous in Turkey. Only the Jordanian royal family was more visible.
Ataturk Portrait at Taksim Square
Old Streetcar on Istiklal Street
Another first impression of Istanbul was that its mosques seem to have a different style of architecture than most of those I’ve seen in Arab countries. Mosques in Istanbul seemed to mostly feature domes and at least two narrow, pointed minarets, whereas the Arab mosques I’ve seen tend to have a single minaret and a flat top. While I have seen some mosques done in the Turkish style in Egypt and Lebanon, these mosques were either built during Ottoman rule or were designed to deliberately mimic the Ottoman style.
Example of a Turkish Mosque
An example of an Egyptian Mosque
One of the first places I visited in Istanbul was its modern art museum, simply called “The Istanbul Modern.” I only saw a special collection and exhibition while I was there, but I have to say that it was as impressive as any other modern art museum I’ve been to in the US. While it contained several abstract sculptures that didn’t seem to specific to any culture, I found the most interesting work to be the ones that had a modern or abstract take on Turkish, Arab, or Islamic culture.
Me in Modern Art
In contrast to the modern art, Istanbul is a very old city and is full of several major historical sites. Istanbul, known as Constantinople until 1923, was the former capital of the Byzantine Empire, which itself stemmed from the Eastern Roman Empire. What began as a Roman city became the capital of a Christian Empire and subsequently the seat of a vast Islamic Caliphate for centuries. From just walking around the city, it seemed you could find a several-century old building with ease, such as the Galata Tower, built in 1348 A.D.
Galata Tower
Istanbul’s largest historical sites/tourist attractions seemed to be concentrated in the old part of the city, called Sultanahmet, and were all walking distance to each other. The area contains a large hippodrome filled with monuments from throughout history, as the Byzantines apparently collected Egyptian and Greek artifacts. These monuments include a 5th century BC Greek column, an Egyptian obelisk from the Luxor temple, and a 10th Century Byzantine obelisk. Some of these monuments originally contained gold or bronze, yet these were looted during the Fourth Crusade when the Catholic Europeans attacked the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire.
Obelisk from Luxor Temple in Egypt
The Walled Obelisk, which used to be covered in bronze
The real dominant features of this area however are its two mosques, the Sultan Ahmet Mosque (better known as the Blue Mosque) and the Hagia Sophia.
The Blue Mosque, which is actually quite gray on the outside, is named after the blue tiles that adorn its interior and was built from 1609 to 1616. The mosque might be the largest that I’ve ever seen, with 8 domes total.
Me outside the Blue Mosque
Inside the Blue Mosque
Right next to the Blue Mosque is the Hagia Sofia, which I thought was the most interesting building in Istanbul. The Hagia Sofia began as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral, dedicated by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, and was built in the middle of the 6th Century AD. For a structure built at this time, its size is genuinely impressive, and was the largest cathedral in the world for almost 1000 years. In 1453 the Byzantine Empire fell to the Islamic Ottoman Turks, who quickly converted the cathedral into a mosque. This meant adding minarets to the exterior and covering up the Christian imagery inside. However, in 1935 it was dedicated as a museum, and the Christian imagery has been uncovered since that time so that it coexists with the Islamic features.
Outside the Hagia Sofia
Inside the Hagia Sofia. That's a Christian icon in between the words "Allah" and "Muhammad"
A short walk from both of these is an old Byzantine cistern, which was also built in the mid-6th century AD. This cistern provided water to the rulers of the Byzantine Empire and then the Ottoman Empire, and is very ornate for a building designed to serve as a well.
Inside the CisternThe last and largest historical site I visited is called Topkapi Palace, which was the residence of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years from 1465 to 1856. The palace is absolutely massive, and contains four courtyards, several royal residencies, a treasury, mosques, and other official rooms within its walls. Many of these rooms have been converted into museums to display the various possessions of the ruling Sultans, including weapons from throughout the World, royal clothing and jewelry, and Islamic relics. You could likely spend several hours there just walking around and exploring the various features and function of all of its rooms. Additionally, the area that contained the most exclusive areas for the sultan’s private life offered great views of Istanbul.
Topkapi Palace's Gate
The Sultan's Meeting Room
Part of Istanbul from Topkapi Palace
Aside from seeing history, Istanbul has nearly as many bars as Beirut, which is impressive for a country that is nearly all Muslim. Due to the secular character of Turkey that has persisted for much of the 20th century, much of Istanbul’s population is fairly cosmopolitan and liberal, and in many areas most women do not wear the headscarf. However, apparently this applies mostly to Istanbul, as other areas of the country are much more conservative. I was glad to be in Istanbul though, as it was possible to go out at night with my friends that I had done improv comedy with in college.
Improv Friends and I
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