This blog is about people, events and things in my life that Inspire me, make me Happy, Laugh, Wonder in awe and what I am passionate about. A sliver of glimpse into my Mind and Soul.
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 the30 feet tall brick ceiling. Originally, water was brought in by aqueductsfrom 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, observedthat people were getting water with buckets from well holes nearHaghia 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. SearchYouTube for "From Russia With Love Basilica Cistern". :)
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 61streets 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 !!!
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books University of Southern California April 9, 2016
The Los Angeles Times newspaper's,21st annual Festival of Books event was held at the University of Southern California (USC) campus last weekend. Started in 1996, this is the largest book festival in the United States. More than 600 authors, celebrities, artists and chefs shared their work. The list of authors included Stan Lee (of Marvel Comics, who created Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and X-Men), model-actress-celebrity chef, Padma Lakshmi (was once married to Salman Rushdie), James Patterson, Joyce Carol Oates and Pico Iyer. The ultimate highlight of the day for me was meeting and listening to astronaut Buzz Aldrin who along with Neil Armstrong were the first two humans who walked on the Moon.
It was a cloudy and rainy day...but book lovers didn't care.
People are lining up to get the books signed by their favorite authors.
There was a huge poster in the travel section and people wrote the places they want to visit. If you zoom in, you will find Santorini in the center :)
Music.
Food trucks !!!
Eagerly waiting outside USC's Edward Doheny Library,for Buzz Aldrin to walk out!!!
Buzz Aldrin was interviewed by Los Angeles Times Book Editor, Carolyn Kellog.
The Man Who Walked On The Moon.
Buzz Aldrin is 86 but has been very active, traveling the world. He was at the book festival to promote his latest book, "No Dream Is Too High". For more than an year, I have been following him on Twitter. Hewas lamenting how the USA hasn't pursued trips to Mars aggressively. When the interviewer was asking Buzz to comment on the fact that today's Smartphones have more computing power than Apollo 11, he said: "It is not what you have but how you use it". It was aninteresting 30 minutes listening to the inside stories of the moon landing mission. Buzz was very witty. Of course, the question was asked: "How do you pee in space"? Buzz replied that astronauts use Urine Catching Device (UCD). When the interviewer asked, what Buzz was doing when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, Buzz quipped that he was checking out his UCD ;)
Video of Buzz Aldrin entering the stage.
As an elementary school kid in India, I remember listening to the live radio broadcast of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing on the Moon. It was an awesome feeling and felt like a dream, to meet one of the living legends, "The Man Who Walked On The Moon" !!!
Blue Mosque is right across from Haghia Sophia and gets its name from the beautiful blue tilework covering its interior. Built in just 7 years, between 1609 - 1616, the Blue Mosque is considered to be one of the most famous religious buildings in the world. It is a functioning mosque and is closed to non-worshippers 5 times a day.
Blue Mosque on the left and Haghia Sophia on the right, as seen from the Asian side of Istanbul.
Walking from Haghia Sophia towards the Blue Mosque.
The courtyard.
Huge circles of lights hang from the domes. Since it is a functioning mosque, women entering Blue Mosque should cover their head with a Jihab or a scarf. For tourists, the mosque hands outa piece of cloth to cover their heads. For women visiting Istanbul/Turkey, it is a good idea to take your own scarf as you will be visiting lot of beautiful mosques.
The huge central dome reaches a height of 141 feet and spans 110 feet in diameter. It is decorated with more than 20000 blue tiles.
With so many lights inside and external light flooding through thestained glass windows, it was little challenging to capture the true colors of the Blue Mosque!
Four massive pillars (2 of them visible) support the weight of the domes, arches and cupolas. 260 stained glass windows decorate the outer walls. Vertical panorama of 3 images.
We visited Istanbul during Ramadanand the plaza between Haghia Sophia and the
Blue Mosque was packed with people waiting to have dinner with their
friends and families!! It was so typical of Asian cultures and I loved that scene and felt I was in India during festival times!!!
As I was writing this post, I read with a heavy heart about the recent terrorist attack in Ankara, Turkey's capital. Our trip to Istanbul was during last June. We absolutely loved Istanbul. People were very friendly and on many occasions, went out of the way to help us. Very often, I felt I was visiting my hometown in India!!!I sincerely wish, hope and pray for a peaceful world without hate, anger and violence and full of love and happiness.
First let me get the pronunciation out of the way. It is, "Ayasofya" :) Built during the Byzantine era and inaugurated in 537, Haghia Sophia was originally a Church. During the 15th century, the Ottomans converted itinto a mosque and added the Minarets. In 1935, the Turkish government turned it in to a museum. Let me walk you from the outside in...
Beautiful gold plated fountainfor ablutions.
Above the massive entrance is a mosaic of Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus.
The mosaic was discovered during renovations in 1849.
The dome of the Nave reaches a height of 184 feet. Vertical panorama of 3 images.
Symbols of Christianity and Islam, side by side in the Church-turned-Mosque-turned-Museum, Haghi Sophia !!!
View from the upper gallery.
This mosaic in the upper gallery, depicting Virgin Mary, Jesus and John the Baptist is believed to be from 1261.
