Saturday 12th April 2025

Grand Bazaar : Nuruosmaniye Mosque : Basilica Cistern

The alarm woke me early, and I immediately got up and looked out of the window. “Wow” I exclaimed.  Still in bed, Dave said ‘Tell me then!”

The balloons were in the sky! This iconic sight that is often used on advertisements and literature relating to Cappadocia was right in front of me!

There is also still some snow in the area.

Accompanied by the colourful balloons, it really is a tremendous sight to see.

We have woken here just four mornings and due to the inclement weather, the balloons have only been permitted to go up twice.  Wednesday morning, when of course we were in one of them and today, our last opportunity to see them sky bound.

We stood and stared at them, some rising up above a distant ridge, another 30 to 40 were just floating gently around, seemingly soundless. A member of staff pointed out a smaller balloon which was a trainee balloon.  It had a much smaller basket to hold just a teacher and a trainee.

It was a spectacular sight!

Today, we are leaving the Anatolia Region in central Turkey and heading to Istanbul in the north west area of Turkey known as the Marmara Region. Throughout history, Istanbul has been the capital of Turkey for many centuries.  However, when the sultanate was abolished, Ankara became the new capital of the Turkish Republic in 1923.

It is one of only a handful of cities in the world that spans two continents. The Bosphorus Strait separates the large city between Europe and Asia. The city’s size is colossal and has a population of around 16 million at present.

Our private transfer into the city centre was a small price to pay to avoid the hassle of Istanbul taxi drivers; we have been scammed before by them.  Companies on the internet advise to book in advance and warn about the taxi scams.

Our hotel is in the Fatih District which is close to the sites we wish to visit this time. After checking in and leaving our luggage, we set off to the Grand Bazaar.

It is many years since we have visited the ancient market place and although we don’t expect it to have changed, it will be good to visit again.

Entering the Grand Bazaar through perhaps its most iconic gate, we admired its architecture. It was constructed in the 15th century and is named Nuruosmaniye Gate. Nuruosmaniye is also the name of the mosque just a few steps away.

This gate took us past the glittering and sparkling jewellery outlets, expensive carpet shops and clothes shops. Then we reached the smaller outlets with vendors selling boxes of flavoured teas, souvenirs of every sort you can imagine and Turkish Delight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Grand Bazaar is one of the largest covered markets in the world. It was constructed in the mid 15th century and today it has over 4000 shops and stalls. 25,000 people work in the bazaar and it is estimated that it has a footfall of 500,000 visitors everyday. At one of the crossroads in the bazaar there is an ablutions fountain, in time gone by, there were also several mosques within the market.

Seated at one of the small cafes, I ordered an apple tea and Dave had a soft drink, we watched the world go by for a short while.

I suggested to Dave that if he could find his way back through the labyrinth of streets to the impressive gate by which we entered, we could visit the Nuruosmaniye Mosque  He took up the challenge and with just one wrong turning  we managed to exit by the same gate. The bazaar has around 20 entrance gates, all of which have a security control.

 

 

 

 

 

As I was checking that my head was correctly covered before entering the mosque, a male member of staff approached us. He smiled at us, told me that my head covering was fine and asked us not to leave our shoes outside but to follow him.  We were a little surprised as there were many pairs of footwear outside.

Carrying our shoes we did as he had asked and he showed us to some wooden cubby holes just inside the mosque’s doorway where we could leave our shoes.

Built in the 18th century, it was the first mosque in the city to be designed in the Baroque style. The mosque’s name Nuruosmaniye, translates to ‘The Light of Osman’ in honour of the Ottoman Sultan Osman lll.

A few small groups of students were sat on the floor reading and discussing the Koran.  Quite a few visitors like ourselves quietly wandered around.

When we left the mosque, and after a refreshments and people watch stop, we walked to the Basilica Cistern. I was dismayed at the size of the queue. We are only in Istanbul for two nights and we are attempting to make the most of our time so we chose to visit the historical landmark in the early evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The queue, however, went down very quickly and we were soon at the entrance where we learnt that the admission fee had increased considerably since I had researched the sight and we had included it in our ’to do’ list. Dave and I had already commented on the increase in prices for food and drinks etc this afternoon.

In our opinion they were admitting too many people at once. Folk were jostling to stand at the handrail of the staircase that led down to the cistern.  There was a good view from this point and many people were posing for their ‘instagram shots’.

The cistern is indeed an incredible sight.

 

 

 

 

The colour changing lights and the water offer more opportunities for  photography enthusiasts.

Both of us stood for a while striving to get good reflection shots.

Periodically, the colour changing lights stopped for quite sometime.

I overheard someone say that it was a crowd control tactic.  By dulling the lights, they hoped the people would move on. Dave and I both thought the cistern was spectacular with the ordinary lights and the colourful ones.

Apparently, there are almost one hundred cisterns beneath the city and this one is the largest. The underground water source, fed by aqueducts. once served the palaces and the homes in the area.

Yerebatan Sarayi is the name that the locals call the cistern.  It translates to the ‘Sunken Palace’, which I personally think is a fabulous description.

There are over 300 giant columns in the cistern. A remarkable statue of Medusa’s head is used as a column base.  Apparently there are two, but I can only recall seeing one.  The one I saw was upside down, the other, is seemingly on its side.

Placing Medusa’s head in these positions, according to beliefs, removes her power!

After our visit to the cistern; it didn’t take us long to choose a restaurant for dinner, as there are so many in the Fatih District.  I chose  a chicken snitzel with herb butter served with potato, red pepper and guacamole salad. Dave ordered a slow cooked lamb served on a bed of eggplant puree.

I always like to mention what we have eaten as a reminder so Dave can recreate our favourite dishes at home!  Our meals were both delicious, we washed them down with a bottle of rose wine from Pamukkale (a wonderful site in south west Turkey).

Back in our hotel room, Dave checked us in for our return flight while I booked us on a 2 hour Bosphorus Cruise for the morning.

It has been a fabulous day from the balloons in Cappadocia to the lights of the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul!

 

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