Photos from Istanbul, not Constantinople

Mood: Slothlike and yet agitated
Music: Karadeniz by Burhan Ocal
Reading: Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds by S. Kinzer

Here, finally, are some photos from my week in Istanbul.....Feel free to correct me if I got any names wrong.
Salaam, y'all.

Aicha Qandisha enjoying watching the huge ships pass beneath the Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge.

Rumeli Hisari, tower and amphitheater.

View across the Bosphorus at Rumeli Hisari, built in 1451 by Sultan Mehmed II ("the Conqueror") at the narrowest part of the Bosphorus to control traffic and prepare for the siege of Constantinople. The Asian-side tower of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge stands in the background.

Inside the Roman cistern.

Under the central dome of the Sultan Ahmed mosque.

The Sultan Ahmed mosque.

Hagia Sophia as seen from the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.

Passageway, Hagia Sophia.

Mixture of iconographies beneath the layers, Hagia Sophia. I have read that there is controversy as to how to conserve the works of art here, as they are layered on top of each other.

Lesser dome of the Hagia Sophia and the principal dome and a minaret of the Sultan Ahmed mosque seen through an upper window in the Hagia Sophia.

Tiled niche overlooking the apse.

Detail of tilework in niche overlooking the apse of the original basilica

Window, Sultan Ahmed Mosque

Mary and Jesus mosaic in one of the domes of the Hagia Sofia.

Minbar of the Hagia Sophia with the name of God above.

Door to the library of Sultan Mahmud I, Hagia Sophia

One of many grand, arched windows in the Hagia Sophia.

(above) Hagia Sophia, beneath the great dome. After passing from Eastern Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism to Islam, the Church of Holy Wisdom was converted into the Ayasofya Museum by Ataturk in 1935.

Aicha Qandisha in the courtyard of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque
(also known as the Blue Mosque)