Of course, there’s no way we could go to Istanbul without seeing the Topkapi Palace!
Following the conquest of Istanbul in 1453, the construction of the Topkapı Palace was started in 1460 at the request of Fatih Sultan Mehmet and was completed in 1478. Topkapı Palace was enlarged with the supplementary buildings added until the 19th century.
Topkapı Palace is located in one of the oldest historical regions of Istanbul and is one of the iconic structures of Istanbul. Topkapı Palace, established on an area of 700,000 square meters on the Eastern Roman acropolis in Sarayburnu, was the administrative, educational and artistic center of the empire for approximately four hundred years from Fatih Sultan Mehmet to the 31st Sultan Abdülmecid, as well as housing the dynasty. Although Topkapı Palace was gradually abandoned by the mid-19th century when the dynasty slowly moved to Dolmabahçe Palace, it preserved its historical importance and value.
After the founding of the Republic of Turkey, Topkapı Palace was converted into a museum on April 3, 1924, having the distinction of being the first museum of the Republic. Today, Topkapı Palace is one of the largest palace-museums in the world with its buildings, architecture, collections and approximately 300,000 archive documents. (https://www.millisaraylar.gov.tr/en/palaces/topkapi-palace)
At the Palace, we visited the Archeological Museum (a bit overwhelming), the Harem Museum, and the Hagia Irene Museum. (Slightly annoyingly, several of the museums on our museum pass were closed…) My favorite was the Harem Museum, which showed the life of the sultan – a bit different than my preconceived notion of anything related to the word “harem.”
Another requirement: The Whirling Dervish Show! That evening, we watched the mystical ritual of the Mevlevi Order, whose whirling dance has been declared a UNESCO Heritage of Humanity. The Sema ceremony is a journey through man’s spiritual ascent to “perfection” through mind and love—a truly unmissable and astonishing experience of music and moves (https://www.hodjapasha.com/en/whirling-dervishes-sema-ceremony).
