Our last day in Turkey

Last day in Turkey

We awoke to another crisp, cool, beautiful day in Istanbul.  We have been so blessed with great weather and enjoying the beginning of spring.  The flowers here are magnificent!  A bit of trivia:  Did you know that tulips originated in Turkey, not Holland?  One of the ancient rulers took the bulbs to Holland on one of his visits, and they began propagating them.  Once we became aware of this new fact, we began to notice the tulip motif in the Turkish tile work, wrought iron and stone carvings.  And they are now blooming everywhere in Istanbul, along with the most brilliant primroses I’ve ever seen, as well as daffodils, hyacinths and other flowers.  There are literally hundreds of well manicured flower beds all over this city!

Today we visited the world famous mosques located in the historic sector of the city.  The Blue Mosque is one of the most famous buildings in the world, built in 1609, “new” construction for this ancient area of the world where many of the sites we’ve seen date back to BC and early AD.  To convert the cathedral into a mosque, six minarets were added to the huge complex, similar to Mecca.  The name comes from the incredible tile in the interior where blue dominates.  We’ll have to include pictures from this portion; it’s hard to describe the detail, columns, and massive domes. 

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From here we walked across the beautiful park connecting the Blue Mosque to Haghia Sophia, one of the most beautiful and famous Byzantine churches, and said to be the tallest in the world. Construction of the cathedral began in the 6^th century.  After the Ottoman conquest in 1453, the cathedral was converted into a mosque, adding minarets and the niche facing Mecca and special balconies for the sultans. Outside we found the remains of the cathedral pulpit. Inside, you see beautifully painted plastered walls, but learn that plaster was used to cover massive mosaics depicting figures of Jesus, Mary, Gabriel, John the Baptist and emperors.  Now that the Sophia has been converted to a museum, the plaster is being removed to expose these amazing mosaics, rare treasures.  Walls, enormous domes, all are covered in these intricate, often gold, small tiles, creating such detail that you can forget it is composed of tiles rather than paint. Part of the original design included metal crosses imbedded into the stone walls, as well as carved crosses in stone.  Though the metal crosses were removed when converted into a mosque and the parts of the carved crosses scraped away, the outline still remains, even after all these centuries.  Massive reconstruction is underway as they prepare for an International World Cultural  Center for 2010.  Just the shaffolding reaching to the ceiling was massive and impressive, much less such detailed work being done at these heights.

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The last stop was at Topkapi the palace compound of the sultans for 400 years, which is also nearby the Blue Mosque and Sophia.  Now open to the public as a museum, the interior park grounds are beautifully maintained and full of spring flowers. Inside the palace walls, numerous buildings were built for official meetings of the sultans, their harems, huge kitchen to cook for the 6,000 people residing within the compound, medical building, pool and pool house, with many other reception halls, as well as it’s own mint for coins. There was also a school to train soldiers and civil servants.  Again, the walls are covered in elaborate tiles with enormous domed ceilings and fringed by ornate porches to view the surrounding Bosphorus Strait. Topkapi ceased to be used as the official palace in 1853 and opened to the public as a museum in 1924 following Turkey’s independence.  The museum houses many of the “crown jewels” of Turkey, including the 3^rdlargest diamond in the world.

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You can’t help but be impressed by the architecture, craftsmanship and artistry exemplified by these buildings.  As we walked up to the mosque this morning, the sun was shining brightly behind the massive dome and reflecting off the minarets, creating quite an amazing view.  It reminded me that despite how things may seem at the moment, or what has gone before, the Son truly does reign over all the earth, just as the sun illuminates every corner of the globe.

We have been challenged, awed, and touched by our time in Turkey. Those we met with during the conference have left an indelible imprint on our lives; we look forward to sharing more details about that face to face with many of you.  Tracing our early church history has truly brought the scriptures to life, caused great reflection and serious examination of the letters to the churches and what He is saying to us today.  We have formed new, dear friendships; have been blessed in enormous ways,  and have so much to pray about.  We’ve discovered what someone called “the forgotten Holy Land,” and come to appreciate so much of the richness of history and culture intrinsic to Turkey.  Our prayer is to remember--- our heritage, our “family,” our purpose and refine our focus on His plan until that day when His reign is complete.