On our final day in Istanbul and Turkey, the skies opened and the rains descended.  It was grey and chilly – a far cry from our first days in this beautiful city!  However, there was no way this was going to deter us from our planned visit to the stunning Blue Mosque and Underground Cistern, which are handily located almost next-door to each other in Sultanahmet.

Outside the site of the Blue Mosque, officially known as Sultanahmet Mosque, is Sultanahmet Square – originally the social and sporting heart of Constantinople.  Its origins date back to approximately 203AD, which Emperor Septimus Severus rebuilt the city, then known as Byzantium, and ordered a Hippodrome be built to stage horse and chariot races.  Today you can wander the long stretch and admire the ancient obelisks that stand sentinel at one end.

Part of the Hippodrome and its obelisks

The Egyptian Obelisk of Thutmose III, thought to date back to 1490BC

The Blue Mosque was built between 1609 and 1616 during the rule of Ahmed I, and is still used as a mosque.  Because of this, all visitors have to meet very specific dress-code requirements.  Given the weather, we were pretty covered up anyway, and I used one of the pretty pashminas I’d picked up in Cappadocia as a head cover.  For those that didn’t have them, the Mosque supplied appropriate disposable clothing.

The Blue Mosque is so called for its stunning tiles that cover almost every surface inside.  It’s hard to convey the beauty in just a few photographs, but I could have spent hours admiring all the different styles and colours.  There are more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles, which were made at the Sultan’s command in the city of Niceaea.

After a quick dash through the rain, we entered the underground Basilica Cistern.  This is the largest of several hundred cisterns built below the city, and was constructed in the sixth century.  These cisterns were designed to store water for the citizens of the city, and the Basilica Cistern has the capacity to store 100,000 tons of water, although in reality there is only a foot or two in there – and some very creepy ghost fish!

There were some seriously massive suckers in there!

Almost creepier than the ghost fish, especially in the flickering half light down there, were these Medusa heads.  Their origin is unknown although they are believed to be Roman.  In addition it isn’t known why the second head is placed upside down – maybe it is to show that the Medusa of legend is dead?

Being down in the Cistern was quite eerie – it was much warmer than above ground, there were drips from the stone ceiling and and the voices of the groups of people shuffling around the boardwalk bounced randomly off the walls and columns.  There’s not a lot to see down there but it was definitely an interesting experience!

We rounded off our Turkish trip with some of  our favourite sweet treats – I promise I didn’t eat them all myself!  More on Turkey’s delicious food, both sweet and savoury, coming soon…!

Bits & Pieces

The Blue Mosque is open for most of the day except during the five Muslim prayer times, so make sure you get your timing right on a visit.  For more information click here

For more info on the Basilica Cistern, click here