More Strolling Through Istanbul

Another strolling day. - this time along the land walls. The walls once extended 6 ½ km protecting Byzantium from attack. They were, for the most part, constructed during the reign of Theodosius II in the first half of the fifth century and are an amazing thing to see.

The guidebook had us start at the Marble Tower near the Sea of Marmara (where the sea walls meet the land walls) and walk the walls toward Yedikule and the Golden Gate. We walked a fair stretch of the walls and ran into a group of wild dogs- which prompted us to turn around and take the long way around (climbing over a wall, crossing train tracks and trekking through an unkempt field) before reaching the main gate of the castle (It could have been an easy taxi ride to the gate and an even easier walk down). Yedikule, the castle of Seven Towers, is a mix of Byzantine and Turkish building. We walked into the “Tower of the Ambassadors” (where foreign envoys were often imprisoned in Ottoman times) and across the walls to the Golden Gate for a view of the walls and the city.

After leaving the castle, we headed towards the Church of St John of Studius, only to find a locked gate and no way to get in. So, we grabbed a cab and headed to the last church of the day, Church of the Pantocrator.

The church is actually three churches in one. The first, built for the Empress Eirene, wife of John II Commenus in 1124. The second added after her death by her husband and the third added to connect the two buildings. Since the church, now a mosque, is only open at prayer time, we had to wait for about an hour with our new friend, Ilyas and the streets kids.

He showed us remains of “Constantine” and took us into a school project run completely by volunteers. There are a significant percentage of children who don’t get formal education in Turkey and they’ve set up over 40 centers to help them learn Turkish, English, math and science- and computer skills. We met the PR Director who happened to be visiting this location. She was trained in the US and gave us a tour of the facility.
Finally, the mosque was opened and Ilyas took us in with great fanfare to show us the mosaics in the first church, the tombs of the Commenus, and then, just like in Romer’s Byzantium tapes, pulled back the carpet in the mosque to show us the original mosaic floor of the church under carpet and wood flooring. (We also met the “Istanbully”…an obnoxious little kid that will probably grow up to be a serial killer).

At this point, our feet were beginning to scream, so we headed back, grabbed some lunch and had an afternoon of R&R.
The trial of Ocelan ended- with a death penalty verdict for the PKK leader. The city was teaming with military and police….