Istanbul 15/3/2011

The summer palace of the ottomans is pretty modest.Twenty four rooms doesn't seem like a lot.The insides are understated and elegant.The carpets are beautifully done in strong colours but not garish,the chandeliers are beautiful and are coloured to match each room.Blue,green and ruby red they send out sparks as the afternoon sun brushes them as the curtains sway.The play of colours is a sight to behold.Each of them made with crystal from Bulgaria and some from china.The carpets are laid out on rush mats all made in turkey and some from India and china (came as gifts).There are paintings in each of the rooms and the sultan being a strong naval man he has a naval room with pictures of naval ships,another room that has furniture whose frames represent naval knots.Besides being a naval man he was also a wrestler and an artist hence the emphasis on symmetry (all door and windows are place opposite each other as is the furniture the lights etc,nothing is out of place or at odds).Legend has it that the sultan eat a kid lamb a day that was the kind of strength the man had.We move over to the ladies side of the palace starting with the rooms of the queen mother.The room is at the entrance of the ladies quarters and gave her a fine view of the happenings there.Having 4 legitimate wives,7 favourite woman and some 200 concubines he needed to know what was going on and his mother was probably the eyes and ears of the palace.The way to become powerful was to produce a son for the sultan and there was much competition amongst the woman.All the rooms in the ladies quarters open onto wide marble balconies that face the Bosporus and the breeze that comes in through the windows could well take away the heat of summer.The high ceiling made sure that there was enough natural cooling so no modern day air conditioning was required.Many girls were given to the sultan at ages as young as eight and nine and there was a school in the ladies section to teach these children the fine points of life from painting,music,cooking,etiquette and maths.This went on till they were old enough to join the harem.The wide lawns and trees around the palace makes for long evening walks and the back gate opens on the the Bosporus and has a long walkway which leads back to the palace.A lazy walk along the waters is enough to sooth the most troubled soul.