Istanbul, Turkey

One of the ceilings in the Harem area.

The last thing that we saved to do in Istanbul was to visit the Topkapi palace since our hotel was directly across from it. It's surrounded by a large park with these squaking green long tailed parot type birds inhabitating the trees. Mehmet II built this palace containing plenty of pavilions and courtyards. One of the quarters was the Harem section containing the sultan's wives and concubines. You would find intricate paterns painted on the ceiling, in the stained glass, on the tiles, door frames, pretty much everything.

Stained glass in the Harem area.

So i began to just capture all these paterns around the achitecture because they were so amazingly detailed. Well, that and the fact that there was no photography allowed inside the treasury area. As Wai would describe the Treasury; it was just decadant. Thousands of precious jewels, diamond encrusted chainmail, daggers with giant emeralds, thrones covered in gold and jewels. There was the "86-Carat Spoonmaker's Diamond" which is said to have been found in a rubbish heap in Istanbul and bought from a scrap metal merchant for three spoons.

Sulyman I's tugra.

This royal monogram was laced throughout the palace which i actually thought looked pretty cool. Wish my initials looked that spiffy.