Topkapi Palace Gates

I got a feeling that the Topkapi Palace Museum would be a large place. Upon entry, it felt more like a park than a palace. Then again, a lot of well known European palaces feel like parks with palaces stuck in them. The Topkapi Palace doesn’t have that much space to work with since much of Istanbul or Constantinople was already built up, including this area. I guess even if you are sultan, there is only so much space you can take. I seems like there are sections here in the palace grounds. I seem to be in the park zone because there is so much greenery here.

If you keep moving forward, you can see that there is another set of gates here, which I assume would lead to the actual palace buildings. The buildings I saw initially didn’t seem to be that important. There was the Hagia Irene, which was a church which was later used as an arsenal. There is also a building which was used to house the sultan’s harem. I was surprised that they lived separately and not closer to the sultan’s place. From here there is a more impressive gate which look much like any European gate. It definitely looks like something important is inside.

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