Private Tour Guide in Istanbul

The inner face of the Paros marble sarcophagus found in Room IV of Hypogeus A is human-shaped. It is called the Lycian Sarcophagus because it was built in the type of sarcophagus peculiar to the Lycian Region. There are hunting scenes on the long sides of the boat, and centaur reliefs on the short sides. On one of the long faces, a hunting scene with five horsemen with spears is depicted around the wild boar depicted in profile. On the other long face, the lion hunting of two hunters on two quadriga (four-horse chariots) is animated. Hunters with their carts turned to the right and their horses galloping are quite young. A lion figure with its head turned to the right is depicted under the feet of the horses pulling the quadriga on the right. On one of the short sides of the sarcophagus are two centaurs fighting for a deer. On the other short side, where a mythological story is portrayed, Kaineus is depicted who is about to be killed by the centaurs. Two female sphinxes, symmetrically ...

The anthropoid sarcophagus, made of diorite stone, found in Room II of Hypogee B, was named after the last owner of the tomb, King Tabnit of Sidon. The lid of the sarcophagus has the appearance of a pharaoh's sarcophagus reflecting the mummy form, and a wide pendant decoration covers the neck and shoulders. The Egyptian hieroglyphic writing on the chest enables us to learn that the first owner of the land was an Egyptian commander named Penephtah. Again, the same article contains the traditional curses of the owner of the tomb against those who will disturb him in his grave. Below this, the contents of another text written in *Phoenician script are as follows: I am Tabnit, Priest of Astarte and King of the Sidonians, in this sarcophagus - I am buried. O whoever finds my grave, do not open my Jahdim and disturb my peace. Because I have neither silver nor gold nor treasure with me. I just lie in this sarcophagus. Opening this sarcophagus, which is my grave, such an act is a great ins...

It was found in room VI of Hypogee A. The inner face of the sarcophagus made of Pentelikon marble is human-shaped. It is called the Sarcophagus of Satrap because the figure in Persian clothes, which is in the center of the compositions on its two long and one short faces, is interpreted as "satrap" (provincial governor). However, it is possible that the figure in question represents a local king who was loyal to the Persian great king. On one of the long sides of the sarcophagus, the satrap/king is in his palace and probably in preparation for hunting. Grooms and servants await instructions from my seated person. A quadriga (chariot) stands in front of the satrap/king. The chariot's horses, with their graceful depictions, have the characteristics of purebred oriental horses. A groom is depicted standing on the frame of the car. In the center of the other long face of the sarcophagus, the old satrap or king is shown hunting deer and panther on a horse. There is a figure of...

  Crying Women Sarcophagus The sarcophagus is called the Crying Women's Sarcophagus because of the reliefs of the mourning women on it. The sarcophagus in Room I of Hypogeus A was robbed before it was discovered. All the faces of the sarcophagus are decorated with reliefs of dressed women, depicted in various poses and sad faces, with Greek idealism, among a total of 18 lon columns. There are two different views that these figures depict mourning women or the wives of the grave owner or members of the same family, as seen in Mesopotamian and surrounding cultures. The lower edge of the boat is decorated with a frieze containing hunting scenes. On the cover, there is a funeral ceremony peculiar to Persian culture. It is possible to see the funeral carriage seen here and the funeral procession advancing in front of and behind the carriage on the grave steles in the Anatolian-Persian Hall of our museum. Paint traces on the sarcophagus indicate that the artifact was painted in blue and ...

Hagia Sophia, considered one of the greatest legacies of humanity and seen as the pearl of Istanbul, has been one of the most curious structures throughout history with its many mysteries.  The secret of the tomb in Hagia Sophia, which bears signs from the Vikings mentioned in Antiquity on its walls and was the largest temple on earth at the time it was built, has not been solved even today.  Hagia Sophia, one of the pearls of Istanbul, which is regarded as an important turning point in the history of architecture with its features, has undergone many structural changes from the past to the present.  The structure, which was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in the old city center of Istanbul between 532-537, was converted into a mosque by Fatih Sultan Mehmet after the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottomans in 1453.  The building, which served as a museum from 1935 to 2020, gained the status of a mosque again in 2020.  The structure, which was first built...

HANDEL'S TIMUR OPERA The important characters of the Timurid Opera, which was first staged in London in 1724, are Timurlenk, the ruler of the Timurid State, Yıldırım Beyazıt, one of the important names in Ottoman history, and Asteria, the daughter of Beyazıt, with whom Timurlenk fell desperately in love. This opera, which combines love and war, has been performed in many cities of Europe. VIVALDI'S BEYAZIT OPERA  Known as II Timurlenko or II Bajazet, it is an opera composed by Antonio Vivaldi for the Verona carnival in 1735. As mentioned, it is one of the operas about the struggle between Timur and Bayezid in Europe. Yıldırım Beyazıt Yıldırım Bayezid, who is quite interesting for the European art scene, meets the audience in Vivaldi's Beyazıt Opera 11 years after Handel. MOZART'S ZAIDE OPERA  It is a two-act opera composed by the famous Austrian composer Mozart in 1780 but was not finished until his death. Sources report that this work was inspired by the Turkish girl n...

 Italian-born musician Giuseppe Donizetti, Sultan II. He came to the Ottoman palace during the reign of Mahmud. Donizetti, who played a major role in the development of the first Turkish band, Mızıka-yı Hümayun, set foot in Istanbul at the invitation of the sultan and pioneered groundbreaking developments in Turkish music for 28 years. Donizetti, who made Turkish music polyphonic, Sultan II. He composed the "Mahmudiye March" for Mahmud and the "Mecidiye March" for Sultan Abdülmecid. HE RECEIVED FIRST MUSIC EDUCATION FROM FAMILY Growing up in a family of musicians, Donizetti took flute lessons from his uncle Carini Donizetti in Bergamo. He wanted to attend the newly opened Lezioni Caritatevoli di Musica school in Bergamnoi for his first music lessons, but he was 17 years old and was not accepted to the conservatories due to his age. AT THE AGE OF 20 JOINED THE ARMY OF NAPOLEON In 1808, at the age of 20, he enlisted in Napoleon Bonaparte's French army. He particip...

  The Treaty of Kadesh, the first known international treaty in history, was signed on equal terms. It was made in 1269 between the Hittite king Hattušiliš III and the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II and was written in Akat, the diplomatic language of that period. There are three copies of the treaty written in Akkadian language. One of the copies found in the capital Boğazköy-Büyükkale during the Turkish-German excavations carried out jointly by Hügo Winckler and Teodor Makridy in 1906 is in Berlin (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) with inventory number VAT 6207, and two are in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. Egyptian translated copies of the treaty are engraved on the walls of the temples of Amon at Karnak and Ramesseum. They ascribe the importance of the treaty to Egypt, slightly different from the original, and emphasize that the peace was signed as a blessing. The Hittite text of the treaty contains information very close to officially accepted conditions. Despite the fact that Ra...

 The sarcophagus, one of the masterpieces of the world of archeology, was found in room III of Hypogeum A, together with the three undecorated sarcophagi exhibited in this hall. The sarcophagus does not actually belong to the Macedonian King Alexander the Great, but takes its name from the depiction of Alexander the Great in the battle scene adorning one of his long faces. War scenes are depicted on one long and one short side of the sarcophagus made of Pentelikon marble, and hunting scenes are depicted on the other long and short sides. The reliefs of the Alexander Sarcophagus, the latest sarcophagus of the necropolis, are all painted. The ornaments indicate that the sarcophagus belongs to the last King of Sidon, Abdalonymos. Although Abdalonymos is distantly related to the Sidon royal family, he was appointed as king by Alexander's commander Hephaistion, who was assigned to choose a king for the city after the Battle of Issos. On the sarcophagus, there are depictions of important...

  The Basilica Cistern, which was used for a while to meet the water needs of Topkapi Palace after the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottomans in 1453, was also used as the only source of water by the people of the neighborhood built on it. The Basilica Cistern was first studied in detail between the years 1544 and 1555 by the naturalist and topographer Petrus Gyllius. According to Gyllius, the Basilica was 336 feet long by 182 feet wide; its circumference was approximately 224 Roman steps. Petrus Gyllius, who did not neglect to count the columns of the building which he called the "Basilica Cistern", determined that there were many wells at the top of the structure in addition to the 336 columns. The Basilica Cistern, one of the most important witnesses of Istanbul's glorious history. was built by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. The building, which is called "Cisterna Basilica" in Latin, and known as the Basilica Palace and Basilica Cistern...

  There are water tanks, fountains and large cisterns of all kinds, fresh and abundant water sources all over the city. This water was brought to the city from everywhere, both near and far, by no less insignificant forcing and transforming nature. Inevitable needs oblige to serve the imperial city. And in any case, we can see and admire the majestic flow of this water in the "air rivers" in the city with every way and skill, some hidden, but some very open. There are also many great and beautiful baths to enjoy, I cannot afford to describe these baths equipped with all kinds of ingenious devices, but I can recommend you to experience and see them yourself.  Theodore Metochites (1270-1332) Byzantios İstanbul was a city surrounded by the sea on three sides, displaying a high trade potential with its transportation networks and an excellent defense system. However, its resources in terms of drinking waterwere quite inadequate. The construction of the first water system in the c...

Although Istanbul is located at the intersection of important waterways, it is a "waterless" city. Due to the inadequacy of the resources within the city walls, since ancient times, drinking and utility water supply to the city has been provided from the outside in parallel with the advancement of engineering technologies. The system of bringing, storing and distributing water from Thrace to the city, which was developed especially during the Roman-Byzantine periods, continued with new arrangements in the Ottoman period. Istanbul with its aqueducts, canals, cisterns for storing incoming water, maqsem (divisions) built for fair water use in the Ottoman period, fountains and monumental fountains is one of the rare cities where the water architecture and technology can be traced uninterruptedly from the Roman period to the present. Istanbul Waterways Hadrian's Water Supply Line It is the first water transmission system of Istanbul. It was built during the reign of Roman empe...

Plastic surgery According to the report of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS); Turkey, on the other hand, has risen to the position of the fifth country in the world where the most aesthetic procedures are performed, with nose surgery being the second in the world and botox procedures being the third in the world. The report, which was prepared solely on the basis of data collected from plastic surgeons and presenting the trends in the 10 countries with the highest number of aesthetic applications in the world, reveals how the aesthetic applications that are clearly preferred in each geography differ, and how the world-dominant understanding of beauty becomes the same. Dental Treatments Turkey is a country that hosts many guests from abroad for dental treatment, apart from being a country where its citizens easily receive dental treatment due to its success in training dentists and its attractiveness in many different ways. The number of people coming to Tur...

The New York Times' list of 52 Must-See Places in the World, published annually, has been updated. The new museum building in Karaköy, designed by Istanbul Modern's Pritzker Prize-winning famous architect Renzo Piano, has been shown as one of the not-to-be-missed attractions in 2023. The list of 52 Places to See in the World published every year by the New York Times, which is accepted as a guide by curious holidaymakers, may give you an idea. In the digital introduction of the 72-page special supplement that will meet the reader on Sunday for 2023; Favorite destinations were featured, from the deserts of Africa to the koala-laden trees of Australia. In this year's list, where food, culture, entertainment and natural beauties were determined as the main elements, Istanbul from Turkey took place. Source: https://gazeteoksijen.com/seyahat/istanbul-modernin-yeni-binasi-new-york-timesin-2023te-gorulmesi-gereken-52-yer-listesinde-168508

  One of the most important representatives of the Classical Period (5th-4th centuries BCE) in the museum collection is the findings from Sardis. Sardis was the capital of the Lydian Kingdom that controlled prime resources such as gold and silver. The city fell under Persian domination when the Lydian King Croesus was defeated by the Persians lead by king Cyrus the Great in 540 BCE. The city became an important satrapy and the final destination of the Persian Royal Road, running from the Persian capital Susa. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 334 BCE, Sardis went on to become on of the Seleucid Dynasty's most important cities in Anatolia. The city was destroyed by a major earthquake in the year 17.  The gold resources of Sardis are frequently mentioned in ancient texts. Some sources describe the Lydian king as a gold-rich ruler, while Sardis and the region in general was associated with gold. Moreover, the river Pactolus was said to be the city's source of gold. According to...

Although it is not grown in Turkey, Turkish Coffee, which is a world-famous flavor thanks to its cooking method, is a rich accumulation of Turkish Culture. Turkish Coffee, whose beans are called “black pearls” and one cup has a memory of forty years, was served with forty different brewing methods in the past. Let's take a look at the coffee culture transferred from the Ottoman Arabian Peninsula to Europe in this article. The origin of coffee is known as the Arabian peninsula. It is estimated that the first use of coffee began around 575 years ago. Coffee, also called "Black Pearl", spread from Yemen to Mecca and Medina, and from there to Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Europe at the end of the 15th century thanks to travelers. There are multiple rumors about the arrival of coffee in the Ottoman Empire. According to the first of these rumors, it was brought to Istanbul by two Syrian entrepreneurs in 1554. According to the other story, Özdemir Pasha, who was the Governor of Yemen ...

Topkapi Palace II. The first construction of the Justice Tower (aka Adalet Kasrı) in its courtyard belongs to the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror. Some parts of the mansion, which was wooden when it was first built and not as high as it is today, became the section where valuable carpets, fabrics, trays and pitchers and documents were stored. Sultan III. When the Outer Treasury Building was built during the reign of Murad I, the items in the Justice Tower were moved to the new building. The location of the Tower of Justice is important in terms of symbolic meaning. The Justice Tower, which was built adjacent to the Kubbealtı (Divan-ı Hümayun), where the state was administered and decisions were taken on behalf of the state; it gives a message to the society that the state is governed fairly and that the decisions taken are fair. The Justice Tower, which was repaired in various periods of the 17th and 18th centuries, was built by Sultan II. It took on a new style during the reign of Mahmu...