Sultanahmet Square Sights

Travels in Turkey, Part 1 of 12

[For the next dozen or so Tuesdays, I’ll be writing about our experiences in traveling Turkey with kids. We spent 3 week in June and July 2010 exploring many different areas of Turkey. We had little idea of what to expect and ended up having a wonderful time.]

Sultanahmet Square

The “Golden Horn” area of Istanbul is jam-packed with historical tourist attractions, each one famous and amazing. One area in particular is Sultanahmet Square. I’ll dedicate another post to Topkapi Palace, which is just off the square.

The park in the square is a nice place to sit, if a little strange. There are benches, fountains, food vendors and, somewhat surprisingly, free wi-fi. You can sit in view of the Blue Mosque, roman ruins and the Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) and surf the web. We used it to check in on Gowalla and check our email, because, well, just because we could!

Basilica Cistern

At Sultanhamet Square, we visited the Basilica Cistern, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Each of these sites was so unique, that we did not feel like we were dragging from one site to the next. Our first stop after getting off the tram at the Sultanhamet stop was the Basilica Cistern (in Turkish it is called the “Sunken Palace”), which we found after consulting three different maps. In on our travels in Turkey, Camille was considered a child in most places, but not here. We headed down the stairs into the very wet darkness. The kids thought it was great fun to be in this “hidden world” — if it hasn’t yet, it would be a great setting for a mystery novel. After exploring for a while, we climbed back out into the sunny day and made our way back over the tram tracks to the Hagia Sophia (which means “Holy Wisdom”).

Hagia Sophia

The history of the Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) impressed even Chloe, who is not a history buff to the extent that her sister is. The size of the emperor’s door makes us imagine the emperor must have been a giant! Much of the interior was under restoration, but that didn’t detract from the awesomeness of the size and details. While old churches and mosques may not be favorites for kids, the ramps leading to the upper galleries provided a fun distraction. We imagined people riding their horses into the church and then upstairs and other silly stories.

Blue Mosque

From Hagia Sofia, we walked across Sultanahmet Park to visit the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque). The courtyard was beautiful, but my girls were more interested in the kittens (stray cats are everywhere in Turkey!). We were directed to a line that formed at a side door instead of the one in the courtyard. The line logic was not clear to us. We were given plastic bags to carry our shoes; women went in with heads uncovered, but bare shoulders were not allowed. The area open to visitors is partitioned off from the rest of the mosque on the floor, but looking up, you can get the full effect of the mosaics in the dome. Bright and airy, it was a wonderful place for kids.

Sultanahmet Square

Upon leaving the mosque, the girls and Rob decided to get some ice cream; I don’t like the dondurma ice cream sold on the street, though the show the fez-topped vendors put on is fun to watch. I was terribly thirsty by then; no street vendor had large bottles of water, so we had to buy a couple of small ones. Around the square were lots of street vendors, cash machines and the “open top” bus tours as well.

The Hagia Sophia is closed on Mondays. The Blue Mosque is open every day, but closed during prayer times. If you go on Friday, go early.