Topkapi Palace

For Larger Pictures click on any of the thumbnails below

This was the nerve center of the far-flung Ottoman Empire until construction of the Dolmabahce Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus. The Dolmabahce Palace rivals the grand Palaces of Europe while the Topaki Palace is now the storehouse of priceless Ottoman treasures.

Topaki Palace was a city within a city with over 50,000 people living and working on the palace grounds.

Here is a picture of the entrance to Topaki Palace, the Gate of Salutations (Bab-u-Selam)

Interesting is the fact that some ten years ago, a smuggled shipment of South American parrots was released below the hill on the waters of the Golden Horn. The flock took refuge on the grounds of Topaki and are still there.

This picture is of Chris inside one of the ancient trees that are abundant on the Palace grounds.

These 3 photos are of Butch and Chris outside the Topkapi Palace Harem Quarters( also called Forbidden Place) where the mother, wives, odalisques and children of the sultans lived their lives sesquestered from the rest of the world. The only men allowed in the Harem were the various princes, eunuchs and firemen, who were obliged to wear coats with exaggerated collars in order to screen their prying eyes from the women within.

The Harem was not a den of unfettered sex .. quite to the contrary. The Valide Sultan (mother of the Sultan) was the queen of that domain of over 300 rooms, and as such, maintained strict order and discipline. Under Islamic law, the Sultan could only have four wives who had born him children. He could divorce those who were barren. Submission to the whims of the sultan was not a foregone conclusion .. there were concubines who refused the sultan's favors and lived to tell about it.