Dolmabahce and Bazaars Revisited

I was originally planning on skipping Dolmabahce Palace.  Being a life-long ancient history and archaeology buff, I was more interested in seeing sites related to Constantinople and the early Ottoman Empire.  However, I later learned the palace was home to Ataturk as well as the last Ottoman Sultans. I have a paper to write about Ataturk and his political legacy, dubbed Kemalism, when I return to Boston and decided that a visited to Dolmabahce might be useful for research purposes.

I first mentioned Dolmabace Palace in my Bosphorus Walk Part I post.  The palace is located directly on the Bosphorus waterfront, north of the Golden Horn and the old city.  It was built in the mid-19th century and was home to the last 6 Ottoman Sultans.

The landmark clock tower next to the front gate of the palace.

Unlike Topkapi Palace, groups of visitors are led through the palace by a guide and there is no photography allowed inside.  The numerous fragile and extremely valuable pieces of furniture, art and  fixtures makes tighter supervision necessary.

The palace interior was decorated in a European neo-classical, rocco and baroque styles and therefore bears little resemblance to the home of the previous sultans at Topkapi.  However, there are numerous and sometimes subtle touches that distinguish the palace as a uniquely Turkish residence.  There are small, freestanding ceramic fireplaces or round metal charcoal heaters in every room, Arabic calligraphy adorns the walls, the bathrooms are designed as private hamams (Turkish baths) and, most noticeably, the palace is divided into the public salons and the private harem.

Some highlights of the public, official sections of the palace include:
The diplomatic reception room where representatives of foreign governments were greeted by snarling bear-skin rugs
The sultan's personal hamam, which features carved alabaster walls, silver fixtures, star shaped skylights and a stunning view of the Bosphorus.
The massive ceremonial hall featuring one of the world's largest crystal chandeliers.  On one side the hall now stands a 7 foot high reprint of Ataturk's first speech as president of the Republic of Turkey, a speech he gave in this hall.  His body also lay in state in the hall after his death.

Ataturk spent summers living in the palace and used two rooms in the harem section of the palace as his private bedroom and study.  During his final illness he stayed in Dolmabahce and died his room there on November 10, 1938.  All the clocks in the palace used to be stopped at his time of death, 905 am.  Though this no longer seems to be true for clocks throughout the rest of the palace, there is still a clock at his bedside set to this time.  Ataturk's death bed is covered in a satin Turkish flag and his rooms in the palace prominently display photographs and artwork related to him.  The contents of his rooms visibly marked them off from the rest of the palace.  I was expecting to see some signs of particular reverence from the Turks in my tour group as we passed through Ataturk's rooms.  However, I did not witnesses any marked reaction from the Turks I was with.  This could perhaps be explained by the fact that the Turks I saw were obviously of the consciously Islamic, as opposed to secular, lifestyle.

The last two days I have spent a good deal of time last-minute souvenir shopping.  This has meant return trips to both the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar.

The Grand Bazaar is massive and ancient mall, full of tiny winding corridors, dead ends
and open air courtyards.  It's oldest parts date to 1461 and many merchants' families have been selling their wares in the bazaar since Ottoman times.  Between 250,000 and 500,000 people visit the bazaar everyday.  However, as this New York Times article points out, there has been no coordinated effort to update and renovate the aging structure.  Apparently, no master floor plan for the bazaar even exists.  Continued structural neglect paired with jerry-rigged utilities could spell disaster for Istanbul's historic heart of commerce.  Let's just hope the worst case scenario doesn't come to pass.

Today I also visited the open air shops that fill in the space outside the "L" shaped Spice Bazaar.



 For a rogue dove, many of the shops in this space are provide an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Despite Istanbul's status as one of the world's largest urban areas, the shops around the Spice Bazaar specialize not only in plants, seeds and gardening supplies but also small livestock and pets.

One can find multiple breeds of chicken as well as ducks and geese.  Stores also sold kittens and puppies (despite the multitude of sokak kedis and kopeks), hamsters, rabbits and some other, more unusual animals.

What I originally thought to be more Turkish Turkeys turned out to be a pair of peacocks.

The most bizaar and slightly frightening creatures for sale were leeches.  They seemed to be marketed as a medical cure-all of sorts.  When I rounded a corner, I found that there were multiple leech vendors in the bazaar.

And one had somehow managed to dump a bucket of his wares all over the ground.  The leeches were making their escape inch-by-inch and the shop owner was chasing them down with tweasers and a net.  Needless to say, I didn't stick around long after taking this picture.