Saturday, May 14, 2011

A visit to Turkey

We just returned home from Turkey.  What a trip!  I'm still trying to recover, but I have a couple pics for you.
We visited a number of mosques, including the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.  These two are the interior of the Blue Mosque.




Notice the detailed tiles.  Muslims do not believe that images of people should be in mosques, so they decorate with floral and geometric motifs.  You would note that the tiles are wildly differing, a cacophany of colors and patterns.
Each area of Turkey makes tiles, and each has its own style.  Each area has donated tiles to be put in the mosque, and those who know can identify the area the tiles came from by their particular style.  It was really beautiful.
Here's my guy standing in the inner courtyard.  The marble slabs here were used in the original hippodrome.  This was our only rainy day - it rained and was pretty cold in the morning.  The rest of the weather was gorgeous!


Next post, I'll show you the outside of the mosque.

No comments:

Post a Comment