Last updated: November 26, 2015



Linger in overlooked Istanbul

Escape Istanbul

Ortakoy Mosque, one of the many smaller mosques in Istanbul dotting the Bosphorus shoreline of Turkey. Picture: Supplied Source: National Features

Escape Istanbul

Exterior of Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. Picture: Supplied Source: National Features

TRAVELLERS to Gallipoli and other parts of Turkey often spend only a couple of days in Istanbul, but it deserves more time.

Originally Constantinople, it was founded in AD330 by the Christian emperor Constantine as "the second Rome", the new centre of the Roman Empire.

After 1000 years of Christian rule, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, in an epic siege. The Ottoman Empire, ruled by sultans, lasted until World War I, when it joined with Germany.

Postwar, the empire, including the Balkans and stretching in the east to Syria, fell apart.

Kemal Ataturk (father of the Turks) then led the country to a republic, with himself as first president.

The capital moved from Constantinople (which became Istanbul), with its burdened past of political intrigue, to a new site in the Anatolian heartland at Ankara a distant parallel to the founding of Canberra.

Ataturk was the Turkish hero of Gallipoli, whose healing words grace the memorial there to the Allied fallen. He modernised Turkey, turning it into a democracy. Religion and state were separated, though Islam remained the dominant religion, as today.

Contemporary Istanbul, with a healthy gross domestic product and straddling East and West, is today a vibrant city, its lively restaurants, bars and galleries offset by its many historical sights.

One's first stop should be the Sultans' palace of Topkapi, within walking distance of the Blue Mosque Square.

Unlike any Western palace, it is a cluster of buildings set in parklands. The Imperial Council Chamber, or Divan, was used for ambassadorial receptions, while the sumptuous harem is a warren of apartments decorated in multicoloured tiles.

It includes concubines' quarters and eunuchs' dormitories.

The Treasury holds one of the world's greatest collections of precious jewels. The palace's huge kitchens fed hundreds.

The grounds include a cafeteria and a restaurant, both overlooking the Marmara Sea. If it is tulip time, and Anzac Day usually coincides, this is a good place for photographs.

A second drawcard is the great basilica of St Sophia, built by Justinian in the 6th century, site of the crowning of Christian emperors.

It was sacked by the Ottomans but is maintained as a Turkish museum. One of the great buildings of the world, its dome was the largest until St Peter's was built in Rome.

Approaching through its main door, one confronts a vast interior.

The ornamentation consists not of side altars or paintings but is in the precious stones and marbles of floor and columns, many ransacked from Eastern temples.

The surrounding upper gallery, itself spacious, is approached not by stairs but by a broad cobblestone ramp, up which horses were ridden.

Like the gold leaf of the glowing mosaics (gold for eternity), the soaring space suggests the mystical dimension of Eastern Christianity.

Blue Mosque Square has parks, fountains, museums and Turkish tea houses, many of them open-air.

Turkish tea, a reddish-brown liquid (no milk), is served in tulip-shaped glasses, rimmed with gold. The enormous mosque, backed by blue sea, dominates the square. Its domes flow downwards like cascades.

Don't miss visiting nearby the mosaics, excavated and restored, of the Great Roman Palace the rest lies buried beneath later buildings.

Opposite, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts offers superb exhibitions of calligraphy and carpets. Nearby, but easy to miss, is the vast underground Binbirdirek Cistern, built by Constantine in AD330.

Visitors enjoy the labyrinthine Grand Bazaar. An Aladdin's cave, it offers an array of wares and souvenirs: jewellery, carpets, leathergoods, ceramics, copper and silverware.

Istanbul offers more extensive waterways, if less labyrinthine, than even Venice.

Ferries constantly make short trips to the opposite, Asian shore to Uskudar and Moda Park. Viewed from here, the old city skyline rises in majestic outline.

But the jewel in the crown is the Bosporus, a winding corridor of water 320km long, connecting the Marmara and the Black seas.

This channel, carrying international ships from Ukraine, Russia and the Balkans, is one of the sights of the world, putting Sydney Harbour in the shade.

There are two ways of exploring the Bosporus. I recommend both.

There is a daily excursion boat from central Istanbul, travelling almost to the Black Sea, with a stopover at the farthermost point. Here, restaurants overlook the shipping lanes.

The route is overlooked on each side by hills crowded with parks, ancient palaces, modern mansions and castles.

Turkish wooden resort-houses, called yalis, lean out over the channel, interspersed with many old summer embassies. Both Bosporus shores can also be explored by bus. One can walk by the water, stopping for brunch at simple waterside eating houses.

Another excursion is to catch a ferry up the inlet of the Golden Horn, enjoying different perspectives of the old city skyline and the ancient, defensive land walls, snaking downhill to the shore.

Here, invading Ottomans built a bridge of ships.

My favourite place in Istanbul: sitting under the Galata Bridge, drinking tea and watching ferries moving between continents. Beyond the bridge is Sirkeci Station, terminus of the Orient Express; Topkapi Tower, the domes and minarets of the Blue Mosque rise above the skyline.


Laurie Hergenhan is emeritus professor of English at the University of Queensland.