Istanbul, Turkey

The Hagia Sophia was the largest Christian Church in the world for a thousand years. It is now a mosque.





Yes, Midnight Express was on my mind when I landed in Turkey but I had studied the Hagia Sophia in college and had to see it.

One of the other reasons I went to Istanbul was because of the 1964 movie "Topkapi" starring Maximilian Schell and Melina Mercouri with an Oscar going to Peter Ustinov.

Topkapi Palace on the Bosphorus

The movie is about the heist of a jeweled dagger from the Topkapi Museum which I visited in 1994. The Museum is actually part of the former palace of the Sultan's who ruled the Ottoman Empire from before Christopher Columbus' voyage until the end of WWI and includes the famous quarters for the Sultan's Harem.

I stayed at the Hilton (one of their flagship hotels) overlooking the beautiful Bosphorus which divides Europe from Asia. Istanbul is where the Orient Express terminates and is also where "From Russia with Love" was filmed.

Whirling Dervishes of Sufi Islam

At the mouth of the Bosphorus is the Dardanelle straight where the British, NZ and Aussie forces lost to the Turks in the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915. Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty and helped plan the failed attack which was portrayed in the 1981 movie "Gallipoli" starring Mel Gibson.

Melina Mercouri was a famous Greek actress, served in the Greek Parliament and was later the Greek Minister of Culture. She was nominated for an Oscar for the 1960 film, "Never on a Sunday." She died in New York at the very time I was at Topkapi.