Antiquities

Back to the "refuge of the world"....

I won't bore you with travel details – all connections were easy – Switzerland looks very nice from the sky, Swissair seats are too hard, Europeans don't like air conditioning – that sort of thing. It all came off ok and here we are.

We arrived yesterday and decided to soldier on with no catch up nap in order to put ourselves right into the local schedule. My assistant practiced his Turkish on the poor shuttle driver and managed to exchange some pleasantries about history and sports teams.

So – yesterday we mostly went out for a big dinner at the Rumeli Cafe. They have a nice roof top terrace. A few plates of Turkish food and some raku on the terrace at the hotel pretty much finished us off.

Hotel Ayasofia is nice. From the roof top terrace you can see the Marmaris and (I believe) the Sokollu Mehmet Pasa mosque. These are not the sweeping views of the Dersaadet or the Nomade where I stayed last year, but for $50 a night off the bill it's on ok compromise. The cash will be better spent later on.

It really does feel good to be back here especially with a bit of knowledge about where things are and what to do (and not do). We took a nice stroll on the way to dinner around Aya Sophia and Topkapi.

This morning it was down to business. After breakfast we figured it made sense to do some of the get-reacquainted to the city museum visiting. Actually, we ended up spending most of the day (until 2) at the Istanbul Archaeology museum. I'm glad we started in the galleries devoted to the tombs of the Sidonian kings. This was a BIG archaeology find in the late 1800s down in Side consisting of a series of underground chambers filled with tombs and sarcophagi. I gather this find was really the motivating factor behind building the Archaeology museum in the first place.

There was a particular sarcophagi – the Alexander tomb – so named NOT because Alexander had anything to do with it but because people thought he was depicted on some of the friezes on the sides. Most of these tombs were shaped like Greek temples, even down to the level of having cornices and carved roof tiles. The Alexander tomb had amazing relief work on the sides depicting battles and hunts. The lion hunt was particularly nice – definitely communicating the spirit of that kind of sport.

I also liked the galleries of classical funeral markers – door styled steele and other types -and also the personal epitaphs written by people from the non-Princely classes. There was one very sweet one someone put on a tomb he made for his dog. I asked my photo-documentarian to get an image of that for my animal sentimentalist readers, so we will see how reliable he is when he downloads his pictures from today.

There was too much to see. The remaining part was mostly "gallery-romping" (my photo-documentarian's expression's for an overly hasty rush through past precious and beautiful things). I must admit that the tile palace – which actually once was a palace joined to the Topkapi complex. It was built in a tiled Seljuk style and is, I gather, the only Ottoman building thus constructed in Istanbul. I believe it was built by the Conqueror himself. Anyway, the layout of the domed rooms – and they way light and air moved through the entire place - was especially nice, and the amazing stained glass work. Actually, it is not stained glass as much as fragments of colored glass set deeply in stone carved fret work so the design with the light through it is amazingly finely designed.

The very last galleries were in the Ancient Oriental history museum (its own building in the complex). I think I like the Hittite aesthetic most – none of that pretty Greek refinery, just solid down to business stuff like bulls, lions and warriors. We also saw the very oldest peace-treaty – drawn up between a Hittite King and Pharoah Ramses II. From the translation I gather they both agree that God demands peace and thus it will ever be between their kingdoms. More likely, I suspect it really took a long and bloody war of attrition to get those two to give it up – either way, there it was. The tiled friezes from the Gates to the temple of Ishtar in ancient Babylon were also remarkable.

And then there was those galleries of Greek and Roman statuary...

Really fine stuff. I've taken it in and been enriched and was then ready to think about some meatballs for lunch,. In the end we turned up on the terrace at the Doy Doy to enjoy their amazing views, shady terrace and gentle breezes on a hot day. Then a nap – and now I see my assistant has gotten up from his nap and crawled up to join me here on the terrace, no doubt thinking about an Efes.....

Later on: Took a walk through the Arasta bazaar and did a quick pied a deux with one of the carpet merchants just outside the bazaar. After that, an evening walk down along the shore line and some dinner at a place nearby.

Most Remarkable Thing:
No, not the peace treaty of Kadesh – although that is likely the most important. I'd have to say those Sidonian tombs- and that Alexander tomb in particular. Anatolia is an in between place and here is all this art that simply combines all the Greek and Egyptian elements. So, you see this enormous Egyptian sarcophagus with the head of Greek on it. On the Alexander tomb everything came together best. I'll see if my photo-documentarian got it adequately, otherwise I'll have to find a picture from the net.

Photo: View of the Archaeology museum from the front terrace of the tile palace. Over the top of things you can see the Tower of Justice.