Have been in Istanbul now for several days. Been down the Bosphoros, up
a castle and in a mosque. It’s an impressive place. The central tourist
trap, Sultanahmet, is also overloaded with places to go and see, from
many different ages. From an Egyptian needle (1500BC according to the
guidebook, 400BC according to the plaque), through to the Byzantine
hippodrome which used to house a huge swimming pool where they raced the
beasts after which it was named, to the Palace which housed the
Ottomans, through to the Blue and Aya Sofia Mosques. This city, perched
across the straits, gateway to two continents has been the centre of
several huge empires for many centuries, robbed only of it’s crown when
Ataturk decided that Ankara was the place for his capital, on the basis
that finding somewhere to erect state buildings in Istanbul was going
involve knocking down several UNESCO world heritage sites.