So what does this news have to do with your travel embassy? Well, in a much busy schedule of G20 Girls delegates, their programme included a visit to Topkapı Palace, and I was one of the 3 special people to accompany them! I figured I should take this as a chance to introduce you to G20 Girls and Topkapı Palace.
G20 has a so powerful image that it makes you immediately think of leaders shaping the world! Well that’s a valid point at least economically because it basically is an international place for the governments and central banks to discuss high level policies for the aim of international financial stability. Gee I should have put a long sentence alert for this! Couple of interesting facts collectively they stand for around 85% of the gross world product (GWP), 80% of world trade and two-thirds of the world population. I added list of G20 countries at the end 😉 Additional to these 20 members each year guest countries are invited to annual summits as well to form an even more global point of view. And 2015 summit of such an important organization is hosted by Turkey.
G20 Girls, consists of delegates from respective countries like G20 but their main focus is increasing female labour force participation. Brilliant girls aging 18-20 are chosen carefully for the programme to represent their country. I could go on but they have their own site to answer your curiosity 🙂
I knew I would meet young, brilliant, clever girls but considering their age I was kind of anxious on how to spend time with them. Would they be interested in history of the Topkapı Palace (boring right?), would they even look around instead of you know doing stuff with their smart phones etc..etc.. After spending almost a day with them, I can safely say that I’m so glad to meet them! Not only they were smart and cheerful and beautiful little angels, they were so aware of the situation in their country and globally. And that is a really important thing to be. Frankly at their age, even though I was in one of the top universities and I thought I was aware of what’s going on in the world, I wasn’t. At least not like these girls! Being aware and trying to do something is a really important and a rare thing at their age. I just loved them, and they made me feel hopeful about future !(God, I feel like a grandma writing this 😀) So girls, if you are reading this, you are amazing, I’m looking forward to what each of you will do in the future 🙂
That being said, it is true we had to skip visiting Blue Mosque that day because we couldn’t finish in time due to never ending selfie breaks 😀
Alright, let’s talk about Topkapı Palace. First of all, plan your visit at least for half a day or minimum 2-3 hours since it’s really huge even just to walk around. Tickets are sold separately for palace and harem so buy them accordingly and yes you do want to see the harem so buy both 🙂 2015 prices were 25 TL for entrance and 15 TL for harem. You can find latest prices here. Oh and it’s closed on Tuesdays.
Topkapı Palace was the home of Ottoman Empire Sultans for almost 400 years. Considering Ottoman Empire lasted 600 years, that’s quite the time. It was used as a place between 1465-1856, so it was home to the sultans from Fatih the Conquerer (7th Emperor) to Abdul Mecid (31st Emperor). After that newly made palaces like Dolmabahçe Palace and Yıldız Palace were in use. By the way Ottoman had 36 Emperors.
Today it is a museum which is a higly popular attraction in İstanbul thanks to its very valuable content and lately special thanks to popular TV show “Magnificient Century” (Muhteşem Yüzyıl). Inside along with many special structure you can also see Imperial Council, Imperial Treasury holding one of the world’s biggest diamond –Spoonmaker’s Diamond, Privy Chamber holding sacred relics from prophet Muhammed such as his cloak, swords, beard and foot print and staff of Moses, turban of Joseph, sword of David and many other relics. These are just higlights additional to these you can visit one of the biggest collection of porcelains, weapons collection, sultan’s portraits and clothes and not to mention views from the palace.
Even though it is a very big palace, currently 80.000m2, at the time Topkapı Palace was 700.000m2! Imagine that! It’s said that 4000 people lived here, also when it was first built name was “New Palace” but later it has come to know as Topkapı Palace.
First thing you will notice about the palace is that it is not symmetrical like many other palaces such as Versailles. This is because each sultan added or changed it according to his needs and desires so it growed over time. From outside to the inside building becaome more private and close to the general access as in the very heart of it sultans and their familis lived.
You will come acroos 3 gates and 4 courtyards. First gate is Imperial Gate (also known as Bab-ı Hümayun or Saltanat Kapısı), it will open up to First Courtyard, then through Gate of Salutation (also known as Middle Gate or Bab- üs Selam or Orta Kapı ) you will arrive to Second Courtyard. Imperial Treasury, Tower of Justice, Porselain collection, kitchen,stables are some of the areas you can explore in the Second Courtyard. Then through Gate of Felicity you will enter Third Courtyard which also marks more private parts of the Palace where not everyone could enter. Enderun, Privy Room for sacred relics, Treasury where you can see Spoonmaker’s diamond are all here. And after Third Courtyard you enter Fourth Courtyard where private rooms of sultans and their families lived. For special exhibitions like treasury rooms or sacred relics you follow a line of people to see each of them, so obviously it is not fun when the queue is long but at least you will see it good when it is your turn!
Harem entrance is in the Third Courtyard as well, if you haven’t bought your ticket at the entrance you can also buy them here.
Of course I couldn’t mention all of the buildings and exhibitions you could see inside, additional to these there are many more and there are temporary exhibitions and events as well! Also there are so many details and stories to talk about like how silence of thousands of Janissaries waiting in the courtyard intimidated foreign ambassadors as it was absolute silence and they were impressed by the absolute discipline of such numbers in front of the Emperor and how only sultan himself could pass through second gate on horse and no one else. I won’t even get started on harem stories 🙂 Anyway here is a guide map of the palace marking locations and buildings, I only gathered information to start your journey, you will discover the rest 😉
Also there is Aya Irini Church in the First Courtyard, which is one of the oldest churches in İstanbul but entrance to inside requires an additional ticket for 20 TL which I think is expensive considering whole palace is 25 tl L And also you can rent a real guide (a person :)) from outside of entrance or rent an audio guide.
Well, I guess that’s all for now, any questions 🙂
G20 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and European Union