Walls of the Topkapi Palace Museum

I believe I am on my last destination for the day. The high summer temperatures here in Istanbul has sapped my strength and I really wanted to just go back to the hotel and chill. However, I also don’t want to have skipped a place only for me to go back another day when it was already right in front me. I expect that a lot of this place would be indoor so hopefully it won’t be as torturous to visit. The Topkapi Palace Museum as the name implies is a former sultan’s palace. Specifically, it was built after Mehmet the Conqueror’s takeover of the city of Constantinople which also happens to be the largest city in this part of the world. A large city also requires a large palace to impress visitors, so this palace was built.

What people may not realize was that there was an existing city here in this part of Constantinople and the palace was built right outside the Hagia Sophia. As a result, there are parts of the old city that were incorporated into the palace. What may be the most obvious incorporation would be the city walls which was part of the old city. The walls are high and were used by the former acropolis of Constantinople. Now the walls will be protecting the Ottoman palace. I don’t know how much of the walls here are still original but the look very impressive and in very good condition. It is interesting that the walls encircle the palace and not the city. Perhaps it is because Constantinople was already that big that it was hard to encircle it with walls. No wonder Constantinople fell.

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