A recent visit to the Turkey Is Bank Museum took me back to my primary school years. I can still remember a man from the bank standing in our classroom telling us all about the merits of saving. Or some such thing. Truth be told, as an eight year old I was more interested in…
When I was about 12, I was bored to tears by rock music. My brother was in a band and practised for hours. If I wasn’t listening to him pick his way through chord progressions, the walls were shaking to the sound of early raw ACDC. They were known as ‘Acca Dacca’ in Australia, and…
When the original wooden St Stephen Church Istanbul was erected on the shores of the Golden Horn in the early 19th century, the Bulgarian Church was trying to break away from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Istanbul. At that time the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople controlled all the religious affairs of Orthodox congregations throughout the entire…
Once upon a time the Chora Mosque was the Byzantine Church of St Saviour in Chora, meaning ‘church in the country’. This reference is to an ancient monastery no longer in existence, built outside the walls of Constanintople. The current manifestation of Chora Mosque, or Kariyer Camii to use its Turkish name, dates back to…
Istanbul is world famous for glorious historical sites in the old city of Sultanahmet, like the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Haghia Sophia and the Grand Bazaar, but there’s so much more to see. To make the most of this Istanbul itinerary 2 days in Taksim is a great base to explore other parts of Istanbul…
I walked into the National Palaces Painting Museum in Istanbul hoping to see a particular painting by Hasan Vecih Bereketoğlu and left having discovered a wealth of early modern Turkish and foreign artists I never knew existed. The museum is housed in the former residences of the Crown Princes and entry is included in the…
Istanbul is world famous for glorious historical sites in the old city of Sultanahmet like the Blue Mosque and Topkapı Palace to name a few. Once you’ve seen them, what’s next? A completely different experience awaits with this Istanbul itinerary Asian side, based at Hotel Suadiye* on the Asian side of the city. Istanbul itinerary…
Uskudar, set on the edge of the Bosphorus opposite the hipper and more popular Beşiktaş neighbourhood, is often dismissed as being too conservative and suburban. Yet once upon a time it was a vibrant and exciting city. It was founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists who gave it the name Chrysopolis. Whether…
While the country known as Turkey has a history going back hundreds of years, had it not been for the Turks’ decisive victory during the Turkish War of Independence in a key action in the province of Kütahya, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha (now famously known as Atatürk, father of the Turks) in 1922, the…
Serifiye Cistern (Şerefiye Sarnıcı in Turkish) was built on the orders of Emperor Theodosius II who ruled Constantinople from 428 to 443 AD. It was constructed as a water depot to distribute supply to the inhabitants of Istanbul, then known as Constantinople. Fresh water was drawn from Belgrade Forest and its surrounds and reached the…