I am very exiting, because I am going to visit the Topkapi Palace. I will go there fist time. I went to Istanbul two times but I didn’t visit the Topkapi Palace. Because I was very younger at that times. Schools closed and summer holiday began.
We began to holiday last week. First week in holiday, I got relaxed. Now, holiday’s second week and next week I am going to go Istanbul.
I am very curious about the palaces, museums and historical things. Sometimes I want to see these places. When I wanted the see these places, which city doesn’t make any difference, I can go there.
I am making some preparations about my trip now.

First of all, I am going to hospital and check up will be done, because I don’t want to go to Istanbul as ill.

Second, I am going to agent and buy tickets.

I will go to clothes shop and buy new and thick clothes, because Istanbul is colder than Antalya. So I don’t want to become ill. Also, my mother is very interested in me.

For the present my plans are like this.
I hope they don’t change.

I will go there my sister. Actually, my father and my mother promised to come for me. But they won’t be able to come with me, because my father must join a lot of meetings. They are very important for him. So he won’t be able to come with me. My mother is going to my grandfather’s house. Because my grandfather became ill and he is old. So she won’t be able to come with me, too.





One week later,

Our trip is going to start to İstanbul. Last week, I made a lot of preparations. I bought something and I learned, “I am very healthy”. And also I went to library and learned some information...

At night,

My sister and I are going to bus station with my parents now. We are going to there by bus. After that we say good-bye them and starting out to go Istanbul.

After Journey,

We are in Istanbul. We are staying at a nice hotel. Our journey was very comfortable and good. But we are very tired. We are going to Topkapi Palace tomorrow

First Trip of the Palace,





But, firstly we search the tourist information Centers.



The Topkapi Palace Museum Contact and Visiting Information
________________________________________
Address:
TOPKAPI SARAYI
Sultanahmet, Eminönü
Tel: +90- 212- 512 04 80
Fax: +90- 212- 528 59 91
________________________________________
• Museum hours are 9:30 am - 5:00 pm.
• Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays.
• Harem section can be visited only by a guided tour and tickets should be purchased separately.
• Entrance fees:
o Between $10 and $15 depending on the exchange rate.
o Turkish students and soldiers: Free
o Entrance fee for the Harem section:
 Additional $2 (Only guided tours are allowed in Harem section.)
________________________________________
Contact address for researchers:
Kultur Bakanligi Anitlar ve Muzeler Genel Mudurlugu,
II. Meclis Binasi, 06100, Ulus, Ankara, Turkey.
Telephone: 90-312-3104960
Fax: 90-312-3111417
Internet: [Linkleri sadece kayıtlı üyelerimiz görebilir.ForumTR üyesi olmak için tıklayınız]







We are in a Topkapi Palace now. It is wonderful palace. A woman will accompany to us. She is a guide.
Firstly, we are looking a drawing of Palace.








And than, we learned something about palace. Our guide gave us a brochure.


It is our brochure…


Topkapi Palace was home to all the Ottoman sultans until the reign of Abdulmecid I (1839-1860), a period of nearly four centuries. The order for the construction of the Topkapi Palace on the Seraglio Point overlooking both Marmara and Bosphorus was given by Mehmed II after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The place was then an ancient olive grove. The final form of the first palace covered an area 700m², and was enclosed with fortified walls 1400 meters in length. The walls were pierced by a number of gates, namely the Otluk gate, the Demir gate and the Imperial gate (Bab-I Humayun), and a number of minor angled gates between them. After the reign of Mehmed II the conqueror, the palace grew steadily to form a city like complex of buildings and annexes, including a shore palace known as the Topkapi shore palace, as it was situated near the cannon gate -Topkapi- of the ancient walls of Istanbul. When the shore palace was burned down in 1863, it lent its name to the great complex we now know as Topkapi Palace. The main portal, the Bab-i Humayun, was suited next to the mosque of Ayasofya (Haghia Sophia Church), and this led a series of four courts surrounded by various structures. The courts, chambers, pavilions and other sections can be viewed at the floor plan of Topkapi palace.
In this page, you can find pointers to the pictures of illuminated manuscript pages in the museum sections and pictures of sections illustrating the architecture of the palace.
Now, we knew a lot of historical things about palace.



We can walk around the castle now.
Firstly we are going to one room. I can’t remember its name. But in the room, there are sultan’s portraits. We took photographs and left there.



The portrait of Sultan Mehmed, the Conqueror.
This picture is in the British Museum and attributed to Italian painter Bellini. 1444-1481



The portrait of Selim III
1789-1807

We are walking around the rooms one by one and taking photographs. There are a lot of interesting places and rooms, guns, valuable things and tools.



Included flintlock guns
18th century.


Swords
Ornamented with gold


The spoon maker’s diamond



Golden cradle, 16th century.

At this time, every valuable thing made of gold, diamond etc.


Hanging wall clock



But everything isn’t gold, diamond and silver. There are a lot of porcelains, too.


Celadon dish
Yuan dynasty. Early to mid-14th century.




Celadon bottle
Late 14th or early 15th century.



Ewer
Ming Dynasty. Early 15th century. The plain white ewer has a pearl shaped body with a flared mouth. Its



Basin
Quing Dynasty. c. 1735-50.





Blue and white Chinese vase
Yuan, Ming and Quing dynasties. 14-17th centuries.


Blue and white Chinese vase
Yuan, Ming and Quing dynasties. 14-17th centuries.


Japanese porcelain

Sultan’s costumes are more interesting, too.


Satin kaftan of Suleyman II



Kaftan of Murat IV
(1623-1640).
I think, Harem is the most interesting part in the palace. It is very mysterious. Firstly I want to give some information about it.
The harem section of Topkapi Palace was carefully situated so that it could not be seen from the state apartments and the courtyards where public affairs were conducted. Tursun Bey, a chronicler at the time of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror wrote, 'If seems [the sun] had not been a word which in Persian takes the feminine article, even the sun would not be admitted to the harem.' Known in other eastern countries as perde (purdah), zenâne or endrûnr, the royal harem at the Ottoman Palace was known as the Dâr-üs-saâde, or Place of Felicity, while the section of the palace known as the Imperial Harem encompassed both the harem proper, the state apartments of the sultans, the quarters of his household and the pavilions in the fourth courtyard.
The secrecy associated with the royal harem and the harems of upper and middle-class Ottoman houses aroused the keen curiosity of foreign travellers and artists who visited Ottoman Turkey, but their written accounts and pictures of the harem were based for the most part on hearsay. With a few exceptions it was not until the end of the 18th century, during the reign of the enlightened reformist Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) that the architect and draughtsman Melling, Daniel Clark and other artists were admitted to the palace harem to draw from observation instead of imagination.
In 1909, following the deposal of Sultan Abdülhamid II, the Ottoman historian Abdurrahman Seref Bey made a detailed study of the buildings and apartments of the harem, and the women, princesses and princes who lived there. His findings were published as a series of articles in 1910 and 1911 in the historical journal Encümen-i Osmani Mecmuasi. The harem was home to the sultan himself, his mother, wives, daughters, sons, brothers, the high ranking female officials who managed the affairs of the household, hundreds of maidservants, and black eunuchs.
The earliest parts of the harem quarters are the Golden Road, the sultan's private kitchen, and that section known as Eski Hasekiler. The service sections of the harem included kitchen, food cellar, baths, laundry, sick room and the dormitories of the maidservants and black eunuchs. As the population of the harem increased from the end of the 16th century onwards, mezzanines and additional buildings were constructed containing bedrooms for the serving women and self-contained apartments for the wives of the sultan. The 17th century Ottoman writer Evliya Çelebi records that until the late 16th century the harem did not move to Topkapi Palace, although the sultans conducted their daily business there and often spent the night, going occasionally to the Old Palace to visit their wives and children. Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) took only his wife Hürrem Sultan and some women-in-waiting to this palace, the complete transferal of the harem from the Old Palace taking place during the reign of Murad III (1574-1595). On 24 July 1665, while Mehmed IV (1648-1687), his harem and household were at the palace in Edirne, a great fire broke out at Topkapi Palace, destroying the Palace of Justice, the Council of State, the Treasury, the Land Registry Office, most of the harem from the Carriage Gate to the Apartment of the Sultan's Mother, and the kitchens.
The 17th century Turkish scholar Katip Çelebi wrote in his Takvimü’t-Tevarih that a maidservant who had stolen a ring started the fire. Mehmed IV and his mother returned to Istanbul to inspect the situation, and the sultan ordered the construction of a new harem building whose interior walls were entirely decorated with tiles. This was completed in 1668, but since Mehmed IV and his successors who reigned during the second half of the 17th century lived for the most part at Edirne Palace, the harem at Topkapi did not regain its importance until the reign of Ahmed III (1703-1730), a period popularly known as the Tulip Era. European baroque began to influence Turkish art and architecture at this time, and the Tulip Era is characterized by a new naturalistic style, which is perhaps most strikingly exemplified by the painted wall decoration consisting of vases of flowers and plates of fruit in the Fruit Room of Ahmed III in the harem.
The passion for garden flowers became evident everywhere, on clothing, furnishings and in architectural decoration, and extending even to the names of the harem women, who began to be given melodious Persian names like Laligül (Ruby Rose) and Nazgül (Shy Rose) that suggested they were as beautiful and graceful as flowers. Later in the 18th century, rococo, with its delicate color schemes and light romantic motifs, began to influence Turkish art, and the Pavilion of Osman III built on a terrace facing the Hünkâr Sofasi (Throne Room of the Harem) and the gracefully decorated wooden structures known as the Gözdeler Dairesi (Apartment of Favourites) above the Golden Road are typical of this later style. Life in the royal harem was very different from that imagined by Europeans. As an institution in Ottoman society the harem reflected the secluded privacy of family life. The carries or maidservants who served the women of the household were trained and educated in the skills and accomplishments thought appropriate for women at the time, and after a certain number of years in service allowed to marry. In the royal harem, under the guidance of the sultan’s mother or the principal officer of the harem household, a woman known as the chief treasurer, the girls were taught to read and write, play music, and the intricate rules of palace etiquette and protocol. Very few were honored even by the privilege of waiting at the sultan’s table, and still fewer became royal wives. After nine years of service the harem girls were given their manumission document, a set of diamond earrings and ring, a trousseau and some gold as their marriage portion, and suitable husbands found for them. They were renowned for their good breeding and for their discretion, never being known to reveal any intimate details about the royal family to outsiders.
While, We were walking around the palace, I took some photographs.






This trip is the most superb trip I have ever been. I want to tell something about palace and I want to give some advice.
Topkapi Palace nowhere aspires to imposing height. Everywhere the axes are horizontal, and the style consciously humble, avoiding ostentatious monumental facades. While mosques, as the house of God, were deliberately built on a large scale wherever possible, the sultans did not seek similar grandeur for their own homes. That is why, if it were not for the intricate decoration of surfaces and monumental gates, Topkapi Palace could disappoint the visitor in search of the same definition of splendor as exhibited by European palaces.