Turkey Pictures

Congratulations! You’ve found the picture page where I have a brief selection of my best pictures accompanied by detailed captions from the day’s learning. It is organized by date from oldest to newest, so make sure to scroll down to the bottom to see the newest pictures which I’ll add daily.

Tuesday, June 7

Hagia Sophia from hotel window

Blue Mosque from hotel window

Taking an evening walk along the Marmaris Sea, there are locals fishing with long fishing poles off the rocks and collecting little silver fish in jars to eat for supper

Panorama of Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque during the daytime from our dinner on the 7th floor balcony of the hotel

Panorama of Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque in the night time from hotel room

Wednesday, June 8

Blue Mosque panorama from inside mosque courtyard. This mosque is also known as Sultan Ahmed who commissioned its building. It is unique because it has 6 minerets instead of the usual 1,2 or 4.

View from inside the Blue Mosque. Notice the two big round columns or "elephant feet". Four of them support the various arches and domes within the mosque. Also, you can see the various tiles that line the ceiling and walls of the mosque. There are 20,000 of them. Each, a traditional Iznik tile made from their bright red and blue color dyes in the traditional Ottoman floral patterns. Each tile 20 cm. by 20 cm. today would cost on the order of hundreds of dollars!

Another panorama from inside Blue Mosque. Notice the golden niche in the far wall. That is called the mihrab and orients Muslims toward Mecca which happens to be SE from Istanbul. There are strategically placed mihrabs on the enterences of mosques as well as on minerets, so that Muslims praying outside the mosque also know which direction to face.

View from inside Hagia Sophia which means "Divine Wisdom". Originally, this was a Byzantine church, but when the Ottomans took over Turkey they converted it into a mosque. This picture is taken from the position where the sultan would stand to address the people. Notice the two big round peices of wood with Arabic inscriptions at the front. The one on the right is "Allah" and the one on the left is the prophet Muhammed.The height of th central dome is almost 50 m.!

Byzantine mosaic in Hagia Sophia. In the Muslim tradition, mosques cannot have images of any humans, gods or animals. Thus, when the Ottomans converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, they covered up all of the Byzantine mosaics. Because the Hagia Sohpia is now a museum open to all people, archaeologists have been working on recovering the beautiful mosics. It's as if there's hidden treasure underneath all the walls and ceilings! This particular one shows Jesus in the middle with John the Baptist flanking him on the right and the Virgin Mary on the left.

Underground Cistern Basilica which was used to collect the city's water. This place was awesome and reminded me a little of walking into a cave.

Part of the construction of the Underground Cistern Basilica includes two Medusa heads. It was said that if you looked into Medusa's eyes you would turn into stone. However, according to the archeatects of this cistern, if a Medusa head is turned on its side or upsidedown (like the other one), Medusa looses its affect!

View of the Bosphorus from the tip of th Golden Horn at Topkapi Palace. The Ottomans ruled from this palace in their Empire's capital here in istanbul. Everyone from sultans, viziers, administraters, concubines, cooks and guards lived here. The Ottomans used it until they lost everything in their defeat in WWI and their fall from Turkish power after the Turkish revolution led by Ataturk, which established the current Turkish Republic.

Alexander the Great Sarcophigi in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. Although it depicts Alexander the Great on the outside, the sarcophigi in fact held the body of a Turkish leader who wanted to be associated with Alexander's greatness. It is carved out of only 2 pieces of marble, which is the most common building material in Istanbul. It used to have vibrant red, blue and yellow colors. In addition, I was impressed by the amount of detail put into it. For example, the animals depicted such as a dog and horse, you can see the bulges of each muscle group and the strain on each muscle as the animal leaps to attack or retreats in fear.

 Thursday June 9

Our first stop of the day was the Spice Bazaar or Egyptian Bazaar full of traditional Turkish goods including mounds of spices, locum (turkish delight), tea and trinkets. Best part of this was that every shop gives free samples!!!

Meet my doctor friend who I met in Turkey!

Our next stop of the day was a morning boatride on the beautiful Bosphorus, which separates Istanbul's Asian and European side. This is the view of the new government palace building on the Asian side of the city.

My most Turkish and interesting lunch yet. Kumpir is a baked potato with whatever topings you want on it. Kiwi Cayi and just Kiwi tea which was really sweet and really green. So, the sheet that listed the toppings was in Turkish only. Despite the rough translation by a waiter, I still ended up with a mysterious spud. In retrospect, after looking up the words, I discovered that among my toppings were butter, cheese, green olives, peas, sausage, carrots, red cabbage, red peppers and ketchup.

Advertisements of two of the big political parties in Turkey. This is a unique time to visit beacuse they are having new elections this year. Although there are twenty-eight different political parties in Turkey only three main ones usually get enough votes to be represented in the legislature. They are the AKP (Justice and Development Party), the MHP (Nationalist Party) and CHP (Republican Party). In a couple weeks they will vote and determine the new Turkish government leaders.

This is one of the most unique mosaics, among many magnificent ones, at St. Chora Church. It depicts the virgin Mary's death. Around her are people well-known to her. One of whom, is Jesus standing behind Mary in this picture holding a baby Mary. In addition, there is a six winged cherubim on top of the mosaic. In general, the mosaics in this church were divided into two sections: the life of the virgin Mary in the inner hall or narthex and mosaics depicting the life and ministry of Jesus in the outer hall or exonarthex.

Mosaics were popular artwork during the Byzantine Empire in Turkey. This art requires placing many little round pieces one by one in order to create a larger picture.Can you recognize this familiar miracle? This is a mosaic of depicting Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine.

This is just one of over 4000 shops in the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest tourist shopping areas of Istanbul. Many shops sell the same items, like clothing, ceramics, musical instruments, rugs, spices and jewelry. Unfortunately everything in this bazaar is genuinely fake. None of it is made in Turkey!

 Friday June 10

Today, we had morning classes. So, I used my extra free time to study on the roof of the hotel accompanied by the Blue Mosque.

I just think this picture is amazing. Notice all the details of this picture that I took while skyping. There are at least 2 maybe three pictures/reflections of the Blue Mosque in this photo. You can also see me and my reflection as well as my friend Elizabeth who studied abroad for a semester in Turkey last year.

After classes, we had a free afternoon in Istanbul.. We went to Taksim Square, considered the center of the city by locals. We skillfully navigated the bus system from our hotel to Kabatas station where we decided to walk up a hill rather than take the tram, climbing up an innumerable amount of stairs while asking locals for directions every 100 meters. From left to right are the other four students: Ben, Kara, Niha and Elle.

At Taksim Square, I had another "bazaar" food experience. I ordered Islak Hamberger which Elizabeth suggested that I try. That was great!!! But I also had this watered-down plain yogurt drink that Kara had ordered by accident. Finally and this is the worst one of alll, I pointed to one of the pictures when ordering. And...it wasn't until after I took a bite that I realized I had ordered a cheese and cow tongue paninnii!!! It wasn't as bad as I thought either!!!

Before leaving Taksim Squre, we found a fairly new Greek Orthodox Church that was still in use today, but undergoing renovations today. It was a lovely church and it was comforting to see crosses and even the sign of the trinity on the gate. Afterwards, we actually took the tram back down and navigated our way back to the hotel.

 Saturday, June 11

Our bus and we take the ferry across the Dardenelles straight from Europe to Asia. I don't have a picture this time, but to add to my "bazaar" food adventure, I had a Turkish specialty called Kokoruc, which Cenk our tour guide told me (after I took a bite) was sheep intestines!!!! This time, I only ate a little bit!!!

Trojan horse replica at the ancient archeaological site of Troy. If you look closely, you might recognize a familiar face popping out of the windiow!

Pamarama of part of the excavations at the archaeological site of Troy. The city of Troy was destroyed and rebuilt many times. In all, there are 9 different levels which the city has been on through the centuries. On the top level was the acropolis where the Temple of Athena was and the 6th level is considered the Homer level because this is where the city lay in the time of Homer's account of the Trojan War. Shown here is the sanctuary where the Trojans made their sacrifices. They would often read the future by reading the smoke, or opening up the chest of the animal and looking at its liver!

Group picture at the Athenian temple in Assos. Assos was known as the City of Philosophy. Aristotle lived in this city for a few years AND there is a Festival of Philosophy held in Assos every July!

At the Athena's Temple in Assos. Can you figure out what we're spelling?

Outdoor pool at our hotel in Assos with waterslide overlooking the Agean Sea. Let's just say we had a very very fun evening!

 Sunday June 12

(Pentecost Sunday)

Notice the snakes on this column replica at the Asklepion in Pergamon, one of my favorite sites so far and one of the largest health care sites in the ancient world. Besides performing normal physical treatment and surgeries, this facility specialized in doing hydro treatment with hot and cold water and psycho treatment using a theater, where they showed comedies, and a tunnel , in which patients walked alone with the soothing sound of running water, the doctor's voice and a dose of opium. Here, they certainly believed in giving holistic treatment.

Turkish Pizza is a specialty in the Pergamon region. While it is a Turkish specialty, it wasn't nearly as exotic as the "bazaar" foods I tried the last couple days. In fact, this pizza was exceptionallly good!

Ruins of the Temple of Roman Emperor Trajan on top of the acropolis at Pergamon. This temple is built on the highest point of the Acropolis where everyone in the city below could see. The base of the temple is situated on top of a series of large arches. Among other things on the Acropolis were the Temple to Athena, the alter of Zeus, one of the steepest theaters and a large library. In the Bible in Revelation 2, the letter to the church in Pergamon, there is reference to "Satan's throne" which could be these grand pagan temples atop the Acropolis as well as reference to white stones which will have names on them, marble stone with our names rather than the "names" of these pagan gods!

Ruins of Red Basilica in Pergamon. In the 2nd century AD it was perhaps the largest brick building in Turkey. Now, it has been outdone by the Hagia Sophia. This church is conspicuously located right next to a mosque!

 Tuesday, June 14

Me in front of Enterance to Aphrodisias, City of Aphrodite.

Excavation site at Laodicia, which only started in 2006. While there are some erect columns and entry ways, most of the ruins remain burried underground or in piles, ready for the archaeologists to sort.

Natural springs at Hierapolis

 Wednesday, June 15

Standing in baptismal pool at St. John's Basilica ruins.

Displaying the changing colors of a multi=thousand dollar silk carpet in the Turkish Carpet Weaving School.

Panorama of Ephesus city columns and council meeting hall.

Main Street of Ephesus where Paul would have walked.

Painting of Paul in cave at Ephesus. In this portion of a larger painting depiting a scene from the story of Paul and Thekla, Paul is teaching.

Group picture in front of the library at Ephesus.

Panorama of Theatre at Ephesus, the largest theatre of the ancient world holding over 25,000 people. It's first prominent visiter was the apostle Paul during a riot in Acts 19. The last prominent visitor to the Ephesus theatre was Ray Charles.

Panorama of Kusadasi city and harbour from hotel window.

Thursday, June 16

Theatre at Miletus, Capital of Philosophy where Thales, the Father of Western philosophy, lived in the 6th century BC.

Ancient Roman bath at Miletus. This part is the frigidarium, where ctizens would wash themselves with cold water before entering the tepidarium, lukewarm water bath, and caldarium, hot water bath. Water came from the mouth of the lion on the right side, which represented the Roman Empire's power. The statue at the head of the pool is of the Greek god, Kaystros, god of the river.

Temple of Apollo at Didyma.

Can you tell what we're spelling on the steps of the Apollo Temple in Didyma? By the way, each one of those huge columns is 2.2 meters in diameter and 19.8 meters high. The size of those columns reminds me of the giant Redwood trees in California!

Athena Temple at Priene. Next to me is an inscription in the marble about the goddess Athena

 Friday, June 17

Sand castle that Ben, Linh and I made on Kusadasi beach. I confess I've never made a sand castle with an architecture major before, but I must admit that this is a sand castle sure to rival the Hagia Sophia in artistry and beauty!

Panorama of sparkling blue waters of Kusadasi Beach with cruise ship in harbour.

Happy early Father's Day, Dad! I ate some ice-cream for you! For the same price as two individual cones on the street, we could get 2, 1 litre cartons of ice cream from the supermarket! So, we splurged. It's now sitting only half eaten in my refrigerator. I need someone to help me finish it.

Game 6 of the Turkish basketball championships between Finerbache and Galatasaray. We cheered Finerbache, Cenk's team to victory! But it was tense to the end if you can tell from this picture. There's one second left on the clock, Finerbache is up by one point and has two free throws. They won by three by the way!

 Saturday June 18

Panarama of beautiful Aegean Sea from the side of the highway.

Sunday, June 19

Sea and Islands from beach at Marmaris