We have spent the last couple days seeing various mosques and museums.  Both are ubiquitous in Instanbul, with 2,944 active mosques, and (it sometimes seems) almost as many museums.

Most mosques are topped by a dome that looks ordinary from the outside, but is elaborately ornate on the inside.  Many are painted, others have frescoes, and the most elaborate have tile patterns.

Many of the mosques and churches also include elaborate stained glass windows, and often exotic tiles and scripts on their walls.

One of the most famous palace museums is the Topkapi Palace. The palace housed a sultan with over 4000 of his people, so the grounds were immense.  Unfortunately, many interesting displays of ancient artifacts were behind very poorly lit glass, where a person had to press his nose to the glass to see anything.  Since it was crowded, that meant you saw nothing unless you were willing to go at a snail’s pace with the other tourists to view some of the jewelry.  No thanks… ☹

To add insult, there was no photography allowed.  Why?  It was allowed up until 5 years ago, when the director of the museum released his own book with photographs of the artifacts.  He then banned photography.  You can make your own conclusion on that timing…

People watching is always fun around the public areas of any of these mosques and museums.  Most people are friendly, and willing to smile for the camera.

Our last stop for the day was the Archaeological Museum, which was one of the best we have seen throughout out travels.  We have visited museums though out the world, but have never seen such a large display of nearly intact ancient statues, as shown above.

The collection of sarcophagi was particularly impressive.  We have never seen more than one or two reasonably intact sarcophagus at a time, yet here were many dozens of them,  each more elaborate than the last, and all in excellent condition.

Some of the details of the sarcophagi can be seen here.  Definitely a “must see” for anyone visiting Istanbul!