Laura Tanna - LETTER FROM LAURA

Istanbul! Everyone who visits this ancient city, known as Byzantium, then Constantinople and now Istanbul, has marvellous memories. Sprawling across the Bosphorus Straits, sitting astride both Europe and Asia, it has history and monuments enough to satisfy the most intrepid of travellers.

Arriving at an airport so modern, we wondered how anyone could question Turkey's credentials for joining the European Union, we obtained our Turkish visas with a valid passport and payment of US$20, something both Jamaicans and Americans may do. Our surprise at how Western this city of 12 million inhabitants appears with its skyscrapers, subway and shopping malls was equalled only by our surprise at the great warmth and politeness of Turkish people. When the brilliant military commander Mustafa Kemal, better known as Ataturk or 'Father of the Turks', became president of Turkey in 1923, promoting a secular republican constitution and reforms which ultimately gave equal rights to women and replaced the Arabic script with the Latin alphabet, the 1,300-year rule of Ottoman Sultans ended, just as many centuries before that, first Greek, and then Roman, rule over the Anatolian Peninsula ended.

Prison-turned-hotel

Friends in Jamaica's tourist industry suggested we stay at the new Four Seasons Hotel in the Sultanahmet older section of Istanbul, so we could walk to many of the ancient sites. But this hotel was once a prison, made infamous in the film Midnight Express, which depicted the horror a Western youth endures when he is arrested for dealing drugs in Turkey. A firm believer in duppies, I preferred staying on the Bosphorus in the landmark Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel where the view of sailing and shipping vessels was fascinating. One night we sat on the balcony and watched as, to our left, the Ataturk Bridge, a suspension bridge like California's Golden Gate, changed colours from purple to blue, then red to green, shimmering all night long while at its base, jutting out from the waterside of Ortakoy Square, the magnificent 19th-century Mecidiye Mosque shone like a pearl in floodlit glory as shadowy ships passed in the night.

Varying prices

The Ciragan is expensive - JFK Junior honeymooned there - but Istanbul has hotels and guest houses in all price ranges and I would recommend finding one with a water view. The Ortakoy neighbourhood is filled with open-air cafés and restaurants near the ferry-landing by the mosque so one can have the same lovely view from a rooftop café, as we did one afternoon while enjoying ice cream.

The metered taxis are plentiful, and not expensive, so armed with a card giving our destination in Turkish should the driver not speak English, we headed to the Dolmabahce Palace on our own. Completed in 1855, the Sultan left the centuries old imperial Topkapi Palace, now a museum complex, and moved into the Dolmabahce. Some may find its 19th-century gilt, crystal chandeliers and white marble over the top, but I loved it.

Admission is with their guides only and I especially loved our guide's honesty. Halfway through the tour when we were plunged into semi-darkness and had to stumble our way through narrow hallways and stairs as he described what we ought to be seeing, I asked if this were a power cut, something we know all about in Kingston.

"No, scheduled maintenance work but if I'd told you that at the beginning, no one would have come on the tour!" We still saw enough to make it a highlight of our Istanbul visit for in addition to its ornate treasures, Ataturk lived his final days here.

Nine-hour tour

Next day, we toured old Istanbul for nine hours with Emin Saatchi, tel: 0090 536 243 8488, email: es@cornucopia.net, a guide recommended by friends. He met us at our hotel at 9 a.m. and we took a taxi to the Basilica Cistern, built by Byzantine Emperor I. Justinianus (AD 527-565). It's a giant rectangular pool of water with 336 huge columns supporting the ceiling. Coolness greeted us as we marvelled at the cleanness of the underground area. Two giant heads of Medusa, from the Roman period, turned sideways and upside down, serve as bizarre feet for two of the giant columns.

The Cistern Café there would be inviting in summer but at 9:30 a.m. a bit gloomy, even eerie in atmosphere. Since the cistern is built under the southwest corner of the Hagia Sophia, we emerged to enter Emperor Justinian's 6th-century architectural marvel, a Christian Cathedral with the largest dome ever constructed until St Peter's Cathedral was built in Rome almost a thousand years later. In 1453, the Ottoman Turk armies seized Christian Constantinople from the Byzantines and Hagia Sophia became a mosque and in 1934 it became a museum for all of Turkey. Sadly for us, scaffolding from centre floor to ceiling, for restoration of the dome, totally eclipsed its glory.

Disappointing Hippodrome

Equally disappointing was the nearby Hippodrome, ancient centre of chariot racing, sports and gladiator fights, which I imagined would be like the Roman Colosseum. Instead, a grassy area is all that is left, save a column, obelisk and fountain. Not to worry, the Blue Mosque, so-called for its gorgeous blue tiles from Iznik, though actually named Sultanahmet Mosque for the Sultan who commissioned it (1603-17), created a sensation at the time for its six graceful minarets, until then the province only of the Prophet's mosque in Mecca. A sound and light show is available at dusk from May-October.

The Museum of Turkish & Islamic Art proved another example of how well-appointed Turkish Museums are: a beautifully restored 16th-century palace now houses a well-planned display of Islamic carpets, miniatures, woodwork, etc surrounding a courtyard. Ibrahim Pasha, who built this exquisite residence, was strangled in his sleep so that Suleyman I might take it for his own!

The nearby Istanbul Archaeology Museum was a highlight because of its exquisitely carved white marble sarcophagi and statues. Horrible agony on the face of a mythic character being skinned alive because he dared to better one of the gods in a contest haunts me still. Five thousand years of antiquity, some so lifelike one is humbled that such artistry existed millenniums before the world we know today.

Konyali Restaurant

Our guide planned the tour so that just as we were about to drop from a surfeit of history and tired feet, we arrived at the Konyali Restaurant within the Topkapi Palace complex where delightful Turkish cuisine, a pleasant dry white wine called Kavaklidere from the Ankara area, and even better views of the Bosphorus meeting the Sea of Marmara refreshed us during our visit to Topkapi. A series of courtyards and buildings - clock room, audience chamber, kitchen, library, mosque, etc - was not what I'd expected but what lived up to expectations were the imperial costumes and imperial Treasury with opulent gems and the fabulous Topkapi Dagger decorated by huge emeralds. The Baghdad Pavilion covered in intensely blue and white tiles had its own allure.

Hotfooting it downhill through the Spice Market, also called the Egyptian Market, open every day but Sunday, we had time only to glimpse immense quantities of colourful spices, cheeses, nuts, fruits, vegetables and perfumes but the sky was darkening and the Rustem Pasa Mosque with its famously beautiful coloured tiles beckoned and didn't disappoint. Now we hopped another taxi and took off north, along the waters of the Golden Horn to the Orthodox Patriarchate, Church of St George (1720), whose interior paintings and gold and silver immediately brought to mind the Christian church of the same name in Cairo.

Patriarch emerged

Our guide was surprised that we call this the Greek Orthodox Church for the Patriarch, equal to the Roman Catholic Pope, is leader of Greece, Turkey and other Middle Eastern Christians. The Patriarch himself, in flowing black robes, emerged just yards from us, smiled, waved and went on his way with two aides. Bible passages intoned within the intimate house of worship created a strangely moving spiritual atmosphere of serenity. The Church of St Mary of the Mongols, so called because Emperor Michael VIII had sent his daughter in the 13th century to marry the Khan of the Mongols, called to us and a visit to another shrine completed our introduction to historic Istanbul. Since mankind left Africa to inhabit the world, Istanbul has been at the crossroads of it all.

Marble statue of Oceanus, god of the rivers. - Photos by Laura Tanna