The dominant building was a tremendous mosque...though there were numerous mosques along with Hagia Sophia across the hills on the other side of the water. What struck me was how the bridge supports for the subway line that crosses the water at this point mirrored the mosque's minarets. I thought they complimented one another.
I wandered up the hill toward the mosque through streets of hundreds of small shops just beginning to open. The mosque was open for prayers but not for tourists until later in the morning...so I walked around the grounds for a while. Then found a tea shop and had breakfast...luckily they print menus with pictures so I could just point out what looked good. It all looks good here...the food is spicy, complex and always good.
The interior of the mosque is filled with light, covered by a huge dome and system of half domes whose complexity I could not understand. What holds it up? The builder, Sinan, is reputed to be the greatest Ottoman architect. the mosque was built in 1557, around the time that Suleyman was laying siege to Vienna (he did not take it...if he had Vienna would be filled with mosques instead of churches). Ahhh, history, architecture, geography...they all come together in monuments like this.
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