"Yeni" means "new" in Turkish. Although it is new, it actually has a history of more than 400 years. The appearance of Yeni Mosque is no different from other mosques. Its design style is very similar to that of the Blue Mosque and Suleymaniye Mosque. The whole building has a main dome and several small domes.

There are also two Islamic minarets pointing to the sky, which are very spectacular. There are various small shops around the mosque, and the hawking is everywhere, which is very lively. But once you enter the Yeni Mosque, it's like walking into another world. The mosque is covered with prayer rugs and the walls are covered with Iznik tiles. The square outside the Yeni Mosque.

Although there were many people coming and going, standing on the steps of the square, you can enjoy the beautiful scenery on the opposite side, and the green spire of the Galata Tower is clearly visible. ) When I went out in the morning, I wanted to find a place to send postcards first, but I accidentally walked into the Istanbul PPT headquarters. The building of the Post Office Building is quite old, but taking pictures is not allowed indoors.

You don't need to put stamps on postcards here. The staff will pick up the postcards and throw them into a machine, which will automatically stamp them. All you have to do is pay. I bought the famous fish burger for breakfast at the pier, 6 lira per serving. To be honest, it was not as delicious as I imagined. Yunluo couldn't get used to eating raw onions, and the grilled fish was just so-so.

Today I decided to go on a cruise on the Bosphorus, Fullbosphorus Cruise, 25 liras per person, departing from Eminonu at 10:35 every day, stopping at Anadolukavagi for lunch, and returning to the starting point at 16:25. The cruise shuttles back and forth between Europe and Asia. You can fully appreciate the beautiful, historical and story-telling buildings on both sides of the Bosphorus.

You can rent an electronic guide for 7.5 liras. As the ship travels, it will trigger the explanation of the buildings on both sides of the strait. If you are good at English, you can rent one to listen to it, and there are corresponding pictures. (Since the Greek era, the Bosphorus Strait is a 32-kilometer-wide deep-water strait connecting the East and the West.

It is the most important strategic waterway in the world, which separates Asia from Europe and connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Taking a cruise on the Bosphorus is one of the greatest pleasures of Istanbul. From Emineni, go up the Bosphorus. Visitors can come to the small town of Anadolu where the Bosphorus meets the Black Sea.

The scenery along the way is beautiful, and the legendary waters and unique location make people feel that they have not really been to Turkey if they don't take this cruise. ) After eating, I went to the pier to buy tickets. I found that many European and American tourists had lined up in a long line, one line at the ticket office and the other line at the entrance of the pier.

After boarding the ship, Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo excitedly ran to the top deck and found a seat by the side of the ship. The weather was not very good that day. It was always gloomy. The wind was a bit strong when the ship was sailing, and it was very cold. I regretted not wearing enough clothes, but in order to enjoy the scenery, I had to sit outside. We would make a short stop at several docks on both sides of the river.

Some people were getting on and off the boat, and it seemed that it could also be used as a ferry. At 12:10 noon, we arrived at Anadolukavagi, the northernmost point. The Black Sea could already be seen here, and the boat would dock here for 3 hours. The fishing village was very small. The houses were scattered and in bright colors. After landing, we found a small shop with terrace seats on the second floor.

Order a cup of coffee and some fries, and sit there for an hour or so. There are many souvenir shops in the town, and a group of tourists are transported here at a fixed time every day, so the town has a strong commercial flavor. After passing through the town and climbing a not-too-high hill, you will reach the Anadolu Fortress, which guards the gateway to the Bosphorus Strait.

From here you can see the Black Sea. The restaurant on the top of the mountain is in a good location. I recommend you go up the mountain to eat. Part of the fortress ruins is blocked by ropes, and tourists consciously do not cross. A staff member saw that Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo were holding professional cameras and took the initiative to invite Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo to go in and take pictures.

Then other tourists followed in. At 15:00, we boarded the boat for the return trip. Unable to bear the wind on the deck, we found a seat in the inner cabin for our friend. We took a nap and went out for some fresh air. Yunluo unexpectedly saw a group of dolphins again, tumbling in the direction of Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo's boat from a distance. We returned to Eminonu Pier.

It was still early, so I planned to go to the nearby Kesir Railway Station (Sirkecigar?). Sirkeci Railway Station (Turkish: sirkecigar?) is one of the two main railway stations in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, located west of the Bosphorus. The temporary station was opened in 1873, and the current building was opened in 1890.

This station is the terminus of the famous "Murder on the Orient Train"). As a result, I took the wrong road. I could see the railway tracks but couldn't enter the station. I gave up. I went around a long way and entered Gulhanapark. It is free. The park is adjacent to Topkapi Palace and the garden is very grand and beautiful.

April is the season when Turkish tulips are in full bloom. The park is full of colorful and neatly arranged tulips. Perhaps it is the end of the flowering period, and the flowers are too blooming and not at their most beautiful. For dinner, we enjoyed Turkish kebab in the restaurant downstairs of our hotel. In the evening, we went to Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque to see the night view.

It's great to live in this area, you can walk everywhere. I went to visit some of Istanbul's most famous attractions early in the morning. There was already a long queue in front of Hagia Sophia, which I had seen at the World Expo. I went around to the Topkapi Palace behind, and the ticket office was also lined up with three layers of snakes.

I bought a package with the harem, 45 liras per person. (When the Ottoman Empire was at its peak, its territory reached the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, from Asia Minor to the Black Sea, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt in North Africa were all under its control. To understand how the Sultan ruled a vast territory, you have to go to the Topkapi Palace.

During the 450-year history of the empire, half of the 36 sultans made Topkapi Palace their home, and during the heyday of the empire, the erotic and bloody legends of the harem were even more curious. Mehmed II, who crossed the ocean barrier and conquered Constantinople of the Byzantine Empire, learned a lesson.

The sultans were required to live on high ground near the sea, so Topkapi, a small hill surrounded by the sea, was chosen to build the Sultan's palace. It left the best testimony for the Ottoman Empire. From a military perspective, Topkapi does have many advantages. It controls the Golden Horn and the Sea of ​​Marmara and overlooks the Bosphorus.

It is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is moderately far from the Bayezid area where the common people live. It is located at a high place to observe their movements. The entire palace is surrounded by walls, where the Sultan commands the overall situation and his concubines perform the most popular harem life. In 1953, Sultan Abdulmecid I abandoned the Topkapi Palace.

Move into the exquisitely carved Dolmabahçe Palace. In 1924, Topkapi Palace became a museum and was open to the public. Although the area of ​​Topkapi Palace is far smaller than that of the Forbidden City, every courtyard is extremely magnificent and luxurious. Compare it with the description in the guidebook. Slowly appreciate and savor it carefully.

Especially the harem part, there were all kinds of rich people, and I spent 3 and a half hours in it. When I came out, I found that the queue in front of Hagia Sophia was increasing instead of decreasing, so I had to give up regretfully. Photographer Chen wanted to go to a certain high point to take a panoramic view of the Blue Mosque. I saw a restaurant called Panorama across the street.

We went up to the top floor. We asked for a seat on the terrace. The view was really good. Lunch was a little expensive, but it was worth it for the location. From the restaurant, we could clearly see the entrance to the Yerebatansarnici Basilica, which was also crowded. The line was so long that we gave up the meal and went straight to the Blue Mosque.

There is still a queue to enter the inner hall of the mosque, but at least the mosque is free. (The Blue Mosque was designed and built by Mehmet Aga, the descendant of Sinan, the most outstanding architect of the Ottoman Empire. It is also the most popular tourist attraction in Istanbul. The name of the Blue Mosque comes from.

The Iznik blue tiles exude charming colors in the sun. Its real name should be Sultan Ahmet Camii. Sultan Ahmed I was determined to build a mosque comparable to Hagia Sophia. The construction of the mosque began in 1609 and was completed in 1616.

Ahmed I died one year after the construction of the mosque. He was only 28 years old at the time. He died young. The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are less than 200 meters apart, both located in Sultan Ahmed Square. The two buildings have a total of 10 Islamic minarets, forming the most beautiful skyline of Istanbul.

There are six minarets around the Blue Mosque, each 43 meters high, implanted into the sky, giving a great visual impact. It is said that the proposal to build six minarets was made by Ahmed I himself, in order to make the mosque surpass Hagia Sophia in all aspects of architectural specifications.

However, this proposal was opposed by many Islamic scholars, who believed that the only mosque with six minarets at that time was the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and mosques in other places could not compare with Mecca. So Ahmed I decided to build a seventh minaret for the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

Thus, his mosque has become a unique mosque with 6 minarets.) Passing through the side door of the Blue Mosque, here is the ancient hippodrome Atmeydan. (The three monuments on the square can be said to be the symbol of the heyday of the Byzantine Empire. The "Constantine Memorial Column" is closest to the fountain pavilion.

It was built to commemorate the great achievements of Constantine the Great; the bronze serpentine column in the middle is half underground, and three intertwined poisonous tongues are wrapped around the black column.

The shape is like a twist or a thick black rope, but unfortunately the upper part has been broken. The farthest one is the Obelisk of Theodosius, which was moved from the Karnak Temple on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II. The obelisk is carved from pink granite and is well preserved to this day. It is the oldest monument in Istanbul.

From Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, each name change is a thrilling page in human history. Most of the big cities that have gone through many dynasties, let alone the capital, only leave the footprints of the last conqueror, and Istanbul is no exception (except for the Hagia Sophia).

So I spent most of my time walking through the mosques and lamenting the low density of churches in the U.S. A city with a subway or light rail directly at the airport is always reassuring. Walking through the streets and alleys of Turkey, the bustling streets and leisurely passers-by are like a deformed version of a Chinese city.

The car reached the end and suddenly turned. We returned to the Ottoman era. This place is quite small, and most of the scenery prepared for tourists is within walking distance; from another perspective, so many treasures can be crammed into such a small space, which shows the luxury of the Ottoman Empire. There are four must-see places.

After getting off the bus, we headed straight to the best place to kill time—Topkapi Palace. In many ways, this place is very comparable to the Forbidden City. The buildings are of similar age and area, and the east and west complement each other. However, compared with the towering Great Hall of the Forbidden City with nothing around, Topkapi Palace is much gentler.

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

The green grass and trees in the courtyard are full of vitality. When you walk to the last courtyard, you can see the sea in front of you, and when you look back, you can see the people's livelihood in Istanbul. It is indeed very pleasing to the eyes, but I just feel that it is not majestic enough. However, in this place where politics and religion are combined, in addition to the majesty of politics, there is probably also the secret breath of Allah everywhere.

It's not something that ordinary people like Yunluo can grasp, haha. After walking around the outer wall, I finally found the gate of the palace. It looked like a fairy tale castle in the Disney world. There was a large lawn at the entrance. The first courtyard after the gate was the various miscellaneous departments.

Now there is almost nothing left. Like the Forbidden City, the second courtyard outside the imperial court was the government agencies, such as the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Finance. Now it has become a museum. It mainly displays various weapons and imported goods such as porcelain and silk, which were regarded as top luxury goods at the time, and some of them are fakes from Persia, Thailand and other places.

It turns out that Yunluo and Nalan Shiqi were also copied. After watching, I was in a daze in the center of the courtyard for a while. It is said that there were gazelles and peacocks everywhere in the courtyard. It is hard to imagine the solemnity of such a sunny and bird-song-flower-scented place. At the end of this courtyard, near the entrance of the third courtyard.

It is the Parliament and the towering Tower of Justice behind it. The parliament is a meeting of ministers, and the Sultan does not participate, but he can eavesdrop in the next room... Although the parliament is not big. But the decoration inside is still magnificent and meticulous. Passing through this auspicious door is the inner palace.

Although the third courtyard belongs to the inner palace, it is still a place that ministers can enter. However, all public activities, such as festivals or commemorations of the Sultan's birth, old age, illness and death, are held outside the Gate of Auspicious Omens. There is a small stone at the door, which says that it is the place where the flag was planted when the Ottoman Empire was established. It is regarded as the center of the Ottoman Empire. It is said that this flag is still collected in the national treasury. The quality of Turkish fabrics is indeed excellent.

Right next to the entrance is the audience hall, which is so close to the door that you can't see the scenery in the courtyard at all. Ordinary ministers can only go here after entering the third courtyard, which is similar to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. There are also stories that the Sultan is moody and directly orders death after listening to the report, so this place is said to be a frequent place for supernatural events.

Most of the rooms here are still museums, continuing to display the former extravagance, with all kinds of gold and silver jewelry, various furniture that don't look very practical but are carefully carved to dazzle the eyes, and various relics of prophets and saints (it turns out that Islam also has holy objects such as relics).

The most precious items are probably Moses' staff and Muhammad's cloak, but you can't take photos of them. The Islamic Museum of the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been under renovation since Yunluo came to New York. There seems to be no particularly good museums elsewhere in the United States, so this time I was able to feast my eyes on it. There is no such obvious door between the fourth and third courtyards.

But the atmosphere suddenly became relaxed and casual. This is not the place where the royal family actually lives, but more like a place to relax and unwind during the day. There are many miscellaneous buildings, and the form is not so regular. For example, this place that looks like a bedroom but feels cold is where the princes were circumcised.

The innermost Baghdad Palace has the deep blue Populus Strait on one side and the skyline represented by the major mosques on the other. This is where the Sultan rests and it is indeed refreshing. Another Yerevan Palace is under renovation and can only be seen from the wash basin at the door. The real place where the emperor lived was actually the famous harem.

Located on one side of the main palace, the entrance is in the second courtyard and the third courtyard. You have to pay extra money here, so you have to pay. Like the inner palace of the Forbidden City, the harem here is also divided and connected by high walls and corridors like a maze. Unlike what you imagine, although outsiders are strictly prohibited from entering the harem, the concubines inside can come out for a walk and go shopping (?)

Even the party seems to be more humane than the claustrophobic China. Walking from the Tower of Justice, passing the Bathing Palace, you will enter the harem. Many rooms in the harem are not open to the public, so you can only look at the exterior. Because there is not much to say, pick out some important ones to look at.

The first place we walked to was the Queen Mother's Courtyard. After passing through a narrow corridor, we arrived at the much more cramped Concubine Courtyard. The Turkish people are world-famous for their love of bathing. The bathrooms here have been rebuilt many times and no longer retain much of the Ottoman style. Instead, they are clearly the European ostentatious Rococo style.

The largest domed hall in the palace is called the Imperial Hall, which is the Sultan's entertainment room and also the place where weddings are held. As for the Sultan's own bedroom, there is more than one. Perhaps the Sultans often doubt the aesthetic level of their predecessors in private and decide to build their own new ones. The following is just one example. (To be continued...)