The Yedikule fortress

This morning we take a guided tour to visit some sights not within easy reach, without losing too much time on travelling to and fro.
When we are picked up early in the morning, we appear to be the only tourists taking this tour(we expected a huge bus full of people). Our guide's name is Atilla. On the way to Yedikule Fortress we see an awful lot of ships moored in the Sea of Marmara (photos to the right), waiting for permission to enter the Bosphorus.
Our first destination this morning is Yedikule (= 7 towers) fortress. According to our guide books it's closed on mondays and today is a monday so we wonder.....

The fortress is open! And nobody knows apparently, as we are the only tourists around (it's also very early yet). After extensive explanation of our guide we can wander and climb where ever we want.
The fortress was built in 1457 by Sultan Mehmet II Fatih after conquering Constantinopel. Towers and walls were added to the 4th century wall built by Emperor Theodosius forming a fortress with 5 corners. The Golden Gate, through which processions entered the city in Byzantine times, was closed. In the adjoining towers prisoners used to be held and executed (one of them Sultan Osman II in the 16th century).
On the photo below the prison area. The metal construction covers the hole, used to carry off the bodies to the sea.

The best part is being the only tourists in Yedikule. Roos and Eva go exploring by themselves: "It is like being the first persons to discover this fortress!"

Chora church (Kariye Camii)

This 10th century church is just outside the city walls, where once were the fields and gardens('chora' meaning 'outside' in Greek) The Chora church is famous because of it's wonderful Byzantine (around 1320) mosaics and frescoes depicting (among other things) the lifes of Jesus and Maria.
Contrary to the fortress the church is very crowded, there are literally busloads full of tourists.

We go down by cable-car to the mosque van Eyüp, because it's quicker than walking.
Eyüp is a very holy place, because it was here that Eyüp Ensari, standard-bearer to the prophet Mohammed was buried. Muslims like to be buried here as well and the whole hillside is covered in tombs, some even from Ottoman times.
The tombstones show what kind of person is buried beneath: pashas for example, have a stone topped by a fez (photo left, rightmost tomb)and for other men the size of the turban corresponds to the persons standing in life (middle tomb). At graves of women the number of children, is represented by the number of flowers on the tombstone.

We drive on, along the wall in the direction of the Golden Horn and up until we have arrived in Eyüp at the Pierre Loti Café. Pierre Loti was a French naval officer who fell in love at the end of the 18th century with an (unattainable) Turkish woman and who wrote a book about it. The café is on a hill in Eyüp and has a fantastic view on the Golden Horn (photo above to the right).
To the right one of the rare photos with all four us (taken by our tour guide Atilla)

In the mosque (photo above) are some boys, dressed like princes, being blessed before their circumcision. Across from the mosque there is the tiled tomb of Eyüp Ensari.
Inbetween the mosque and the tomb there is a small grassy area with two enormous plane-trees. Here used to be held (very long ago)the ceremony in which the future sultans were given the 'sword of Osman'.

In the end we return to Sultanahmet passing through the Greek quarter Balat. When we would have more time we would have liked to wander for a while through Balat and the adjacent Jewish quarter Fener.
For now we pay a quick visit to the site of the Greek-Orthodox patriarchate that is located right here, in Istanbul.
In the Greek-Orthodox church of St George are very old relics to be admired.

In the end we are dropped at the hotel, by then it is almost 1 pm, we really have seen a lot this morning. We sure can recommend this tour by Backpackers Travel!