Basilica Cistern

Remember how I told you I wish I had taken more pictures?  It applies to more than the Blue Mosque.  The rest of our day in the old part of Istanbul was spent in the Basilica Cistern, Elegance Rug Store, and the Grand Bazaar.  Our guide took us straight from the mosque to the cistern via a park area with really cool planters.  We got to the cistern just as it started to rain a little.  We paid our lira, and down we went.  Oh, WOW!!!  This place was SO cool!!!  The symmetry of the columns is incredible.  It's hard to believe that something this big (even though it is underground) was "lost" for a while.  A better explanation than Wikipedia is here.  After we finished in the cistern, we headed up the street to go to the rug shop.  There was a lady tying a silk on silk rug right there!  Unfortunately, the camera never made an appearance here.  Oops.  Mike reminded everyone that we weren't going to buy a rug, then we sat down and received our rug education.  Did you know that Turkish rugs are better than any other rugs made?  They are!  They use a double knotting system (as opposed to the single knot of Persia) that makes the threads tighter as they are walked on.  They explained how their shop only purchases rugs from families that have made them for their own use, because they are so much better and more natural than factory made rugs.  The families shear the sheep, spin the wool, dye the wool and let it sun for 2-3 summers to get the right color and sheen, then tie the rug and use it.  Rug after rug was unrolled in front of us to show us different techniques and patterns by region.  "Newer" rugs (15-25 years old), "older" rugs (85-90 years old).  Rugs that are over 100 years old are considered antique, and cannot be sold.  There was only one rug that we REALLY liked and would have even considered (even though I probably would have died if I knew the price) that was from a region where there were 5 different colors/shades of sheep.  The wool hadn't been dyed, but the shades and patterns of white to black were so awesome!  Again, sorry for the lack of pictures after the cistern.  More on the Grand Bazaar later.

Bear planter.  Chris wanted a picture with it, because just before our trip he finished his Wolf, and it was his birthday, so he was officially in the Bear den.

One of the 2 Medusa heads used to support pillars.  The other is sideways, but the picture came out blurry.  All the columns were scavenged, so the guess is that the Medusa heads were used to bring the columns to the correct height.

It's amazing that these have stood for so many years!

 

For some reason all the pictures the guide took of us are blurry.



Nick was captivated by the fish.  Mike took 3 pictures to make him happy.  Later we saw some REALLY fat carp, but Mike wouldn't take any other pictures of fish!