This was our first full day in Istanbul. It was a very full day. We were exhausted at the end. We toured the Blue Mosque, the highlight for me was the Hagia Sophia. The Blue Mosque was built in 1616, the Hagia Sophia in 537. From the outside, the Blue Mosque is beautiful, the Hagia Sophia is rather ugly. This is partially because the architect didn’t focus on how it looks from the outside, partially because they had to add buttresses to the Hagia Sophia for additional strength. Inside, the Blue Mosque is impressive, the Hagia Sophia is stunning. The supports for the Blue Mosque dome are obvious. The Hagia Sophia’s dome appears to float in mid-air. This leads to a much more spacious feeling.

About a year ago, the Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque. Muslims do not permit any representation of a person in a mosque because it is considered an icon. The only artwork that isn’t covered over is the one of an emperor on his knees before Jesus. The story is that the emperor did not have any male children. At that time, the church permitted the emperor to take a second wife, then a third; but no more than three. The emperor wanted a forth wife, which the church would not permit. The compromise was that the emperor would create art illustrating that he had asked Jesus directly, and received permission from Jesus, not the church. You can see some pictures on the web site.

The most photogenic site was the cistern under the Hagia Sophia. This was one of four cisterns. The most famous shot is of the upside-down Medusa head. The Medusa can turn men into stone. It is so bad, it scares all the other bad spirits away. This Medusa is at the bottom of the cistern, looking up, and keeping all the other bad spirits out of the water. There are a few pics of the cistern on the web site.

We had lunch as a Michelin restaurant. Unfortunately, this means the restaurant has a Michelin tire sign on the door.

I would like to clean this up, but the internet is not stable. I hope this finds everybody doing well.