The Blue Mosque was first on our tour today. This mosque is the iconic land mark of Istanbul. It has 6 minarets - a symbol that it was inaugurated by a Sultan. It is absolutely enormous and stunning. Giant iron chandeliers light up the domes and cupolas.
The police around the mosque get around on segways.
The Byzantine Basilica Cistern (Turkish: Yerebatan Sarayı - "Sunken Palace", or Yerebatan Sarnıcı - "Sunken Cistern"), is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey. The cistern, located 500 feet (150 m) southwest of the Hagia Sophia on the historical peninsula of Sarayburnu, was built in the 6th century during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.
These vendor carts are everywhere selling roasted corn or chestnuts.
Hagia Sophia ( "Holy Wisdom") is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931, when it was secularized. It was opened as a museum on 1 February 1935. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture." At the time of its construction it was the largest building in the world. It remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years. The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by rioters.
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