A Gathering of Strangers

This morning, for some random reason, my roommate and I were craving chocolate milk...

So we decided to wake up even earlier (we usually met about 8.30 am with the group) to go searching for some in a local store. Well, we found Nesquick chocolate milk boxes in the store right next to our hotel. We ended up returning every morning... Usually the store owners were obnoxious and would not leave us alone... Well this was a little old man that knew no english and was the sweetest store owner we had ever met. I guess it kind of made our day to meet such a nice local :)

Today, our group visited the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnici) built in 532 ad. Essentially, its a very large room filled with water to store for the dry days. When they did need to use this water, they had built aqueducts to bring the water to the city, but this was only used in emergencies. In that time, the water would be filled to the top of this room, but for touristing purposes, obviously the water was much lower. :P

So far 74 cisterns have been discovered, who knows if there are more considering they are underground. 

In the late 16th century, a french traveler saw some people fishing here from their basements. Fish were added to the water so that the people would know if someone poisoned the water or not. To our knowledge, the one we visited, no one had ever poisoned the water. 

The cistern was held up by many corinthian styled recycled columns. 

This is the largest cistern found so far, 70 m by 140 m. 

<-- However this column was the most beautiful and different from the           rest of them from the late 4th century. Known as the Tears Column.

Today's issue: The government needs to stop traffic above ground to save the life of this cistern... its has been reduced, but the ceiling of the cistern could still potentially fall due to the cars. 

Athena was jealous of Medusa for being so beautiful. Athena cursed Medusa and her hair turned into snakes and anyone that looked at her turned into stone. Her head was oftentimes placed at entrances of cities to protect from the evil eye. This is the story of Medusa -->

Our next stop of the day was to the Archeological Museum (Istanbul Arkeoloji Muzeleri). Here, we saw many artworks and artifacts from the Arabian peninsula, Egypt, etc. 

We saw the first known treaty in the world dating back to 1284. 

We also saw the Sarcophagus of the Mourning Women from 4th century bc. 

There are 18 ladies on it, all posed in different positions. In that time period, when someone died, the family would pay women to mourn; however, in these statues, the women look too royal to be hired "mourners." For that reason, it is believed that the person who died was a prince where there was genuine sadness and tried on the faces of the women. 

Also, the women used to be painted with bright colors, but because these sarcophagi were found underground and submersed in water, the majority of the color disappeared. But if you looked closely enough, you could see some remnants of color. 

Alexander the Great Sarcophagus. 

This was placed above ground as a memorial tombstone. This was the tomb of a king, whereas Alexander the Great and his story was carved into it. Alexander's actual tombstone has yet to be discovered. On this sarcophagus, there are depictions of the war between the Greeks and Persians, as well as hunting. This was also painted in bright colors, and there used to be weapons, but they were made out of silver, so probably stolen. 

Sarcophagus means "body eater;" some were made out of limestone that literally ate away at the body. 

I just thought this was cool:

Mummy of Sidonian King Tabnit about 500 BC

And of course, once again... we found a kitty to play with...

Then we went to the Bienali and Istanbul Modern Museum.

These two museums were very interesting... very modern art influenced by old traditions. I didn't quite understand much of it, but it was interesting at least.

~Alexa