Kauffman Commentary

Coming into Istanbul last evening it was cold and pouring down rain, but this morning the sun popped out for us. This made the walk all the better as we wandered to the Hagia Sofia Mosque. This mosque was originally built from 532 – 537 as a Christian church by the Romans. Hagia Sofia means “holy wisdom” and it continued as the cathedral of Constantinople for a thousand years. The Ottomans then converted it into a mosque, but in 1934 it became a museum and remained a museum until 2020. While it was a museum they worked to remove layers of plaster that covered Christian icons. Those remain today even after Turkey reopened it as a mosque in 2020. The alter is centered, but the symbol that the Muslims use as their alter now is off center. This is so that they can pray toward the direction of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. There are marble pieces butterflied on all of the walls. This cutting was done by using silk string, it is hard to imagine how long and difficult that would have been. Our guide emphasized the fact that it is a mosque, but a mosque with Mary, Jesus and John the Baptist on the walls.

Next we descended down underground to see the Basilica Cistern. It was built in the 6th century by the Romans to store water. It could store up to 20 million gallons and is the size of two football fields. They use it for showing art and occasionally concerts.

We sat down in a park to have a roasted corn on the cob snack and a guy came up to us to chat. He showed us the Hippodrome area where they once had chariot races and where there was an Egyptian obelisk, column of Constantine and a German fountain. He told us that he was a Kurd, which make up about 15% of the population in Turkey. Even though we knew where this was going we went along, we ended up purchasing an authentic Turkish rug. It was a fun couple of hours that we won’t forget.

So far, we have thoroughly enjoyed Istanbul and the people. Even though it’s an old city with 16 million residents, we have found it to be clean and not too chaotic. Even the traffic in the Old Town, with its very narrow streets is manageable. And everyone we have met, from the hotel staff, our guide at Hagia Sofia, the rug guys to our waiter at dinner have been extremely welcoming and friendly. They all love to talk about their culture, history and religion, educating us along the way and reminding us that people all over the world are more alike that different.

We finished the day with dinner at a small, outdoor restaurant inhabited by a much younger crowd. We had a great meal, with a beer, for 715 Turkish lira, about $22. The perfect ending to our first day in Istanbul.