Here is the third post for the evening.

We ate in some very interesting restaurants each evening.  This is a kitchen in which the Sultan used to feed the poor folks.  This is the Daruzziyafe Restaurant.

We have returned to the hippodrome.  The Romans, of course, moved some obelisks around.   This one came from the Karnak temple in Egypt of course.  (We have been there.)  It was cut in thirds because it was otherwise too large to ship.

We broke the large group into thirds for our tour of the Blue Mosque.  We are on our way into the inner court yard.

Here is the Blue Mosque with its interesting domes.

One of the Women's praying areas.  I think they were also welcome on the 2nd floor balcony.

The interior of the dome.

This is the main meeting/praying area.  The dark lines in the carpet are designed so the men know where to stand in the lines one sees when they are worshiping.

One of the entries into the Hagia Sophia.

The interior of the cathedral.  The lights hang from the ceiling and are about 9 or 10 feet from the floor.

The interior of the dome.  Very impressive.

We have made our way to the balcony that surrounds the main floor meeting area.

The view from the balcony.  Remember this dates from about 400 A.D.  Vulkan says 200,000 workers did this in five years.

Vulkan is pointing out that the dome's weight is pressing constantly on the supporting structures.  That iron ring is failing to keep the column on the pedestal.

Some of the ladies in the Grand Bazaar.

On our last night we ate at the Sarnic restaurant.  It is a former Roman cistern dating from around 500 a.d.  Constantinople was able to withstand the 14 times it was besieged, until 1453, by virtue of its defensive walls and its extensive series of cisterns that held millions of gallons of water.  That is Bob Lochhead to my right.  He is the Area's legal counsel.

We are entering one of the buildings in the Topkapi palace complex.  It covers about 750 acres and was the administrative center of the city and the Sultan's home.  I would like to watch the movie "Topkapi" sometime.  I think it is about stealing some of the treasures we were not allowed to photograph.

Vulkan is explaining the rise and fall of the Ottoman empire.

This is a room in which the Sultan's counselors would periodically meet.  Although he was the ultimate ruler he found it useful to create a counsel of various tribes and give them perceived, and perhaps authentic, opportunities to give him counsel.