For our second full day in Istanbul, we headed to the Topkapi Palace. This palace was the residence of emperors during the Ottoman period; this empire collapsed about the time of World War 1. After entering the main entrance to the palace grounds, we entered the Second Court. Here is Angela checking out an audio guided tour.
Angela Outside The Topkapi Palace
The palace buildings have been decorated with tiled walls and elaborate highly-detailed ceilings, as can bee seen in the following image.
Wall And Ceiling Detail, Topkapi Palace
Here is another example of the gold-leaf that adorns some of the walls.
Ablution, With Gold Leaf, Topkapi Palace
The palace had several rooms that served as libraries during imperial times. Here is another example of the geometrical design of the tiles on the outer walls of one of the libraries.
Tiled Walls Outside A Library
One of the rooms of the palace is designated a Circumcision Room, that was used for Ottoman Princes. Outside this room is a pool. Here is view from the far side of the pool towards this room.
Pool Outside The Circumcision Room
There were several children visiting the palace during the day. Here are a couple of sisters playing Peekaboo along one of the palace walls.
Peekaboo, Topkapi Palace
The interior of the library rooms are just as decorated as the outside. Here is an example of tiled walls and magnificent stained-glass windows
Couch Inside One Of The Libraries
On the outside, the windows of this library have grates with an interesting hexagon pattern. In this image, I focused on the reflections of the people in the window glass.
Grating Outside Library Window, Topkapi Palace
Here is an example of the mosaic tiled ceilings in one of the palace rooms.
Tiled Ceiling, Topkapi Palace
Istanbul was full of visitors, mainly from Middle Eastern countries, and also local Turks. Of course, with smartphones, people love taking selfies. Istanbul, and the rest of Turkey, had a crazy amount of selfie sticks!
Selfie Sticks Were Everywhere
Here is another view of the palace buildings.
Library, Topkapi Palace
The Topkapi Palace also had over 300 rooms in the Harem! After exiting the Harem, we passed through the Imperial Hall, shown below.
Imperial Hall, Topkapi Palace
I remember the Palace from a movie “Topkapi” that was made in the 1960’s. The plot was about a heist to steal a jewel encrusted dagger from one of the rooms in the palace. Later, after completing our tour through Turkey, we got to watch the movie.