Day 3- Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace, the official palace of the Ottoman sultans from the mid 1400's to the mid 1800's. The palace and grounds were pretty neat, but the really cool stuff was found in the Imperial Treasury (where photography was not allowed). The Ottomans took their jewels and treasures quite seriously... or maybe they just took their looting and pillaging quite seriously. Among the many impressive treasures we saw, I liked the Spoonmaker's Diamond best. At 86 carats, it's the world's fifth largest diamond. We also saw some interesting sacred Islamic relics like a piece of the Prophet Mohammed's tooth and a hair from his beard.

Topkapi kitties.

A really cool bed.

I snuck one picture inside the treasury. The fabrics in there were exquisite and so well preserved.

A cool tree.

A cool bean.

A handy husband.

Booker and Ike got a little nervous in this room.

I literally could not take my focus off the beautiful tile work.

A circumcision sink.

A view across the Golden Horn to the other European side of Istanbul. We'll get to the Asian side of Istanbul in a later post.

Ike was more interested in the iPhone.

More Topkapi photos here.