Colors and Curves ...

                                                                                   Istanbul, Turkey
                                                                                June, 2015

"Colors and Curves" may not be the best expression to describe a  mosque, church or a temple but that was what stood out and  grasped my attention in these mosques in Istanbul.

The Suleymaniye Mosque

The Suleymaniye Mosque is one of the most important and popular mosques in Istanbul. Built between 1550 and 1557, the mosque also acted as a welfare system, housing a hospital, schools, bath  house and a soup kitchen. During its glory days, the mosque fed thousands of poor Muslims, Christians and Jews !!! The inside of the mosque is breathtaking with nicely decorated domes, columns and stained-glass windows.

View of the Suleymaniye Mosque from the Galata bridge.
On the foreground is the Eminonu Pier.
The mosque is located on a hill and it was very, very hot when we walked from Eminonu to the mosque.

The tall minarets are visible from far away.

As is common with most mosques, devotees wash thier feet before entering the mosque.

Four large columns (2 of them are visible) and massive arches support the main dome, creating a soaring space.

The visually striking main dome of the Suleymaniye mosque.
Its height from the floor (53 meters) is exactly double its diameter (26.5 meters).

The Rustem Pasha Mosque:

Not well known but yet another gem, a small mosque close to the Eminonu pier, is the Rustem Pasha mosque. We had to navigate narrow lanes packed with shops on either side and had to ask few locals to find the entrance of this mosque. Later on, i read that the ground floor of the mosque is filled with the shops. It was designed that way so that the income from the shops supported the mosque. The specialty of the Rustem Pasha mosque is the striking blue Iznik tiles set in a variety of beautiful patterns all over the exterior and interior of the mosque.

Blue Iznik Tiles.

Timelapse: Bosphorus Channel @Istanbul

                                                                                   Istanbul, Turkey
                                                                                July, 2015

Whenever I was at our hotel room ( Levni Hotel ), - as soon as I got up in the morning and when taking a break in the afternoon and at night after dinner - I sat by the window and watched the Bosphorous channel ( earlier blog post ). Over the 4 days we spent in Istanbul, I have developed an affinity and love for the Bosphorous channel. It was like watching a big, live organism!!! On the last afternoon, as we made a final trip to the Spice Bazaar to purchase some Turkish dried fruits, I left the camera on the tripod by the window and programmed it to take around 10 shots per minute. When I returned to the hotel room an hour and 15 minutes later, the camera had taken 763 photos. I put together these photos in to a timelapse video.

Bosphorus Channel

Here is my tribute to the Bosphorus channel. An hour and fifteen minutes compressed in to a minute and fifteen seconds!!!

@night: Istanbul

                                                                                   Istanbul, Turkey
                                                                                June, 2015

The Bhosphorous bridge: connects Europe & Asia.

The 9-story tall Galata Tower, built in 1348.

@night: Istanbul

Basilica Cistern

                                                                                   Istanbul, Turkey
                                                                                June, 2015

The Basilica Cistern is a massive, underground water storage facility built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. It is very close to Haghia Sophia and is undeniably the most unusual place I have ever visited. The Basilica Cistern is 105000 square feet in area with 336 marble columns supporting the 30 feet tall brick ceiling. Originally, water was brought in by aqueducts from a forest 19 kilometers away. 


How the Basilica Cistern was discovered: 
It is a fascinating story. After the Ottomans conquest of Constantinople (today's Istanbul), over a period of time, modern water systems got installed and  people forgot about the Basilica Cistern. Around 1544, P. Gyllius, a Dutch traveler researching Byzantine architecture, observed that people were getting water with buckets from well holes near Haghia Sophia. Some were even catching fish out of these holes. He decided to explore this massive under ground well and ended up discovering the Basilica Cistern.

From the entrance, walked down around 50 steps to reach the platform surrounding the Basilica Cistern.
Before these platforms were built, the only way to explore Basilica Cistern was to take boat rides.

Medusa's Head:
An interesting feature of the Basilica Cistern are two Medusa heads at the far end of the cistern. One of the heads is upside down and another is positioned sideways. It is believed these Medusa's heads were placed to guard the Basilica Cistern.

Medusa's Head

In Dan Brown's 2013 book,  Inferno , the climax happens in the Basilica Cistern. The Jame Bond movie, "From Russia With Love" has a scene shot in the Basilica Cistern. Search YouTube for "From Russia With Love Basilica Cistern". :)

Grand Bazaar!!!

                                                                                  Istanbul, Turkey
                                                                                June, 2015

There is only one "Grand Bazaar" and it is in Istanbul. Travel+Leisure magazine tags it as the world's #1 most visited place with 250,000 to 400,000 visitors a day. It has 61 streets and over 4000 shops all inside covered buildings. The granddaddy of all malls, the Grand Bazaar truly lives up to its adjective. It is no doubt a shoppers paradise! The labyrinth of streets and the bargaining reminded me of Chennai's old Moore Market, which unfortunately was lost in a fire in 1985.

The Grand Bazaar spans over the colored areas in this map.
All the shops are inside the buildings that make the Grand Bazaar.
Courtesy: greatistanbul.com

One of the many entrances to the Grand Bazaar.
Built in 1461, it could be called the first indoor shopping mall of the world!

It is not very difficult to get lost inside Grand Bazaar.
We kept one of the shops as our anchor and remembered how many left and right turns we had taken :)

Yummy Turkish Delights !!! (:-P..

Nuts & Dried Fruits. Dried Kiwi was my favorite.

Jewellery, clothes, hand bags, shoes and anything you could think of can be bought in the Grand Bazaar.
Of course, prices are very much negotiable !!!

La Paz

                                                                          La Paz, Bolivia
                                                                             June 2014



La Paz was the last stop for us on this 2 week trip to Peru & Bolivia. We stayed there for less than a day before our flight to Lima and then back to USA. We didn't plan to do any sight seeing at La Paz. Just relaxed and explored the city as we arrived and did some shopping before going to the airport.

As we were returning from Tiwanaku, our guide stopped the van to show us this stunning view of the entire city of La Paz from a vantage point.
I have never experienced a view like this. La Paz is surrounded by tall mountains and houses have been built on the slopes of the mountains, all the way to the top.
The whole city looked like a big, natural bowl. Checkout La Paz, Bolivia in Google Earth and zoom out. !!!

Plaza Murillo, the historic main plaza of La Paz, built in 1558.

National Congress building at Plaza Murillo.
Before reading this caption, if you noticed that this clock looks different, you have good observing skills ;)
Click on the photo to watch it in full screen.

Guards outside the Presidential Palace at Plaza Murillo.

Shopping at the Witches' Market, on the way to La Paz airport !!!

This lady pointed me to the things hanging above her head
and said I can take photos !!!

Those things are the dried fetuses of Llamas !!!
People buy these fetuses as a sacred offering to Pachamama, the goddess Mother Earth.
Hopefully the Llamas died of natural causes !!!

After 2 weeks on the road, we were desperate for Indian food. Surprisingly, there was an Indian restaurant, Namaste, nearby our hotel and we had our dinner there.  The owner is from Bengal and he was so happy to see us. He told us not to worry about what is in the menu and said he would make any dish we ask for. :) There was another Indian family having dinner. I asked the owner how big is the Indian community in La Paz.  He paused, looked around and said, "Including your family, the entire Indian community in La Paz is in inside this restaurant." !!! :) 

Puma Punku !!!

                                                                       Puma Punku, Bolivia
                                                                             June 2014 

"Puma Punku" means the "The Door of the Puma" and is the source of many alien theories. These theories are based on the assumption that such precision cut, smooth and interlocking stone work found at Puma Punku could not have been done by the Tiwanaku natives without sophisticated machinery and aliens had played a role. Puma Punku is right across from the Tiwanaku site. Carbon dating suggests that the Puma Punku complex must have been built around 536 - 600 AD. It is believed that Puma Punku was destroyed by an earthquake. The sculpted stones on display were found 2 meters under ground. While some parts of Puma Punku have been excavated, a major portion of the site is still underground. The interesting aspects of Puma Punku are the massive stones (with the heaviest weighing around 130 tons), precisely cut geometrical shapes, the smoothness of the stones and the interlocking H-Block stones.

There are few unsolved mysteries about Puma Punku:

1. It has been confirmed that the stones of Puma Punku are from a quarries from more than 10 to 100 kilometers away.There are no tress in the area which could be used as rollers to move the stones. There is no evidence that Tiwanaku culture used wheels. How were these massive stones moved from the quarries?
2. The various shapes cut on on the stones require good understanding of geometry and look like they were done using a modern machine.  How did they do it?
3. The smooth surfaces of the well preserved stones look as if polished by a machine.!!!
4. The interlocking stones were precisely cut and fitted together at various angles such that not even a sheet of paper can be inserted in to their joints.  

 

The famous "H" blocks of Puma Punku. These massive stones were used to build the walls of Puma Punku structures.
The stones were so precisely cut and interlocked it is hard to imagine it was done by hand :) 

An array of unearthed stones with various geometrical patterns.

Massive stone blocks were fitted together by pouring molten bronze over the grooves cut in the adjacent stones.
It really looks like they used a stone cutting machine :)

Another example of precision:  perfectly spaced, drilled holes.

There are stones with more than 80 surfaces cut on them.
I counted 50 different surfaces just on the front side of this stone.

No one knows what kind of tools were used.

If you are interested, search Google for "Puma Punku Alien Theory". You will get lot of hits including youtube videos. Many authors have made lot of $$$ by publishing books about ancient aliens. :) I don't believe in these alien theories. I believe it is just arrogant to think that we are smarter than our ancestors ;)