Sunday Wanderings in Istanbul

First, just in case you can't remember what I look like, here I am!  

I'm in the tomb of Suleyiman the Magnificent!  And the tomb is magnificent, too.  So here you go.

Now on to some sights.  Here are two photos of the Rustem Pasha Mosque.  Very beautiful.  It's up a little windy stair off a side street.  I wanted to take pictures of the stairs, but they didn't look like much in the photo.  So you'll just have to come!  It's covered in beautiful tiles.  It was designed by Mimar Sinan - a famous architect at the time of Suleyiman.   I passed his tomb on the way to the Suleyimaniye Çamii - the Suleyiman Mosque which he also designed.  I'll put up pictures of that next.  

Of course I discovered in a book I was reading here that Mimar means "architect" so it's a title, not a name.  And Sinan was a very common name of Greek converts to Islam back in the old days.  So while everyone talked about Mimar Sinan it just means Sinan the Architect.  Not exactly specific, is it!  :-)

But the Mosque is beautiful.  I really liked these two photos of the interior.

Here are two shots of shops.  The first is a shop for coffee and tea pots.  Definitely specialized!  But that's often what I saw in Turkey - lots of little shops selling just one or two things.  The second is a large covered bazaar.  Lots and LOTS of little shops selling things.