Well, nowadays, Turks literally worship their antique ruins. It got accustomed now to rent ancient castles or palaces, in Turkey. For example, the famous castle Yedikule, also known as the "castle with torture towers", is now rented by a private company. This castle, built by Byzantines, is very curious due to its Golden Gate.
"We work hard to maintain its good condition," the watchman tells, "We allow the tourists in for a small charge, and let them use the castle for their commercial purposes. The only rule is not to spoil anything in the ensemble."
In practice, it means the following. Firstly, various concerts take place inside the castle. A stage was constructed in the castle yard, for that. At the same time, government representatives control that the noise level never exceeds certain limit. Otherwise, sound waves of high amplitude can easily damage the ancient stone. Secondly, the company that rented the castle restored one of its halls in the modern style, and uses the latter for organizing various activities, like marriage parties, lunches, business conferences, etc. The demand for all these is very high in Istanbul. Just think, how unusually romantic it is to celebrate your marriage in a fortress where Byzantine soldiers used to reside. The concerts also gather lots of spectators.
... Admittedly, this place is rather gloomy and formidable when looking into the depth of prison pits from the top of castle walls. Well, here used to be a real prison – your actual Turkish Middle Ages prison. Alcatraz would look like a resort when compared to this one. Humanity had rather different meaning, in those times...
"Here, a Sultan’s brother was beheaded. Next morning, so was his mother," our guide tells.
I literally shivered imagining what victims felt waiting for the execution in these sunless pits. Yet, the most formidable tower here is the torture tower. Rebels and lower-class prisoners rather then noblemen were kept here. This tower, as high as a ten-floor house, is all surrounded by scaffoldings. What could the point be?
"Walls inside these scaffoldings were made so that they formed small cells for the prisoners," the guide explains.
No light, almost no food... Tormenters used to come here and did their job in front of all the prisoners. A unique know-how of the Ottomans – the tormenters understood that tortures are more effective when every potential victim saw it.
The garrison of this prison included only 50-60 guards when there was no war. Probably, torture tower captives were so weak that no strict watch was needed for them.
To-day, there is nothing but these wooden scaffoldings with dark smears on them in the torture tower. Wood is a good absorber of blood... there is cobweb in every corner, and captives’ inscriptions made 400 years ago on the walls. A large iron spiked wheel is still lying in a nook by the tower entrance. Tied victims were put inside of it; the wheel got locked and rolled down a hill. Those who were lucky enough died during the first launch... The unlucky ones stayed alive till the third or even the fourth attempt. Other torturing devices are now in a separate room, available for any tourist to see. However, I will advise you to go up the other tower, where Sultans treasury used to be stored when rebellions or sieges happened. Of course, nothing but the old stone is here, now. But look down from the observing platform!..
You see Constantinople from bird flight height!
Not Istanbul, but the very Constantinople, for all the significant buildings of the ancient town are visible from the tower. Byzantine city-wall is especially spectacular, from here...
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Now, let us return to Sultans and their brothers. You might have felt quite shocked having heard about all those beheaded and poisoned relatives. Alas, such was the custom. In fact, it is not that merciless. Any human being is firstly an animal, and Darwinist custom of getting rid of anyone pretending to use your food or any other resource is quite suiting the animals’ world rules. In addition, there is a paradox aspect of highness. It is better to kill one person, even if he is your relative, than to kill lots of people in a civil war highly possible to occur unless the relative is killed, as Sultans’ thought went.
What a pity! They happened to be right, concerning this.
Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror, who actually captured Constantinople, and started the European campaign, was especially active in killing his relatives. Hence his nickname "Mehmet the Bloody". He never got worried about the nickname, though. As any Eastern person, he thought that whatever happened was his destiny. In fact, he had greater chances of being killed than his brothers had. Mehmet was the son of an out-of-favour wife of his father. Usually, the son of the favourite wife used to become the Sultan, and used to kill all his brothers as the next step. All of them - not only the step-brothers! So told the custom. Perhaps, that is why Mehmet eventually became rather cruel person.
Nevertheless, things happened to go so that Mehmet became the Sultan. His first order was to kill his own younger brother. Now, Mehmet could rule the country without being afraid of any rebellion inspired by his rival. I should admit that this did not go well with Islamic moral laws, but country leaders have their own perception of morality.
For some reason, legends say that only Eastern rulers maintained that vicious custom. It is not so. For example, let us consider the famous Alexander. Do you really think that he started his rule with the Persian campaign? Certainly, no. As soon as Alexander’s father died "under uncertain circumstances", as official version told, Alexander ordered to kill his step-brother. The latter was only one year old, by that time. Alexander, being a European himself, was a very significant figure in Turkish history. We will return to this point later, when our story tells about the Istanbul Archaeology museum.
Now, as the last remark about murdering the relatives, consider sharks. Embryo sharks, being inside their mothers’ bellies, start eating their siblings before birth. Hence, only the stronger ones manage to survive.
INFORMATION
Mehmed II (Ottoman Turkish: Me?med-i sani, Turkish: II. Mehmet), (also known as el-Fatih, "the Conqueror", in Ottoman Turkish, or, in modern Turkish, Fatih Sultan Mehmet) (March 30, 1432 – May 3, 1481) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople, bringing an end to the medieval Byzantine Empire. From this point onward, he claimed the title of Caesar in addition to his other titles.
Alexander the Great (Greek: Αλ?ξανδρος ο Μ?γας or Μ?γας Aλ?ξανδρος, Megas Alexandros; July 20 356 BC – June 10 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, was an ancient Greek king (basileus) of Macedon (336–323 BC). He was one of the most successful military commanders in history, and was undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks.
Following the unification of the multiple city-states of ancient Greece under the rule of his father, Philip II of Macedon (a labour Alexander had to repeat because the southern Greeks rebelled after Philip's death), Alexander conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire, including Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria, and Mesopotamia, and extended the boundaries of his own empire as far as Punjab, India.
Prior to his death, Alexander had already made plans for military and mercantile expansions into the Arabian peninsula, after which he was to turn his armies to the west (Carthage, Rome, and the Iberian Peninsula). His original vision had been to the east, though, to the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea, as described by his boyhood tutor Aristotle.
Alexander integrated many foreigners into his army, leading some scholars to credit him with a "policy of fusion." He also encouraged marriages between his soldiers and foreigners; he himself went on to marry two foreign princesses.
Alexander died after twelve years of constant military campaigning, possibly as a result of malaria, poisoning, typhoid fever, viral encephalitis or the consequences of alcoholism. His legacy and conquests lived on long after him, and ushered in centuries of Greek settlement and cultural influence over distant areas. This period is known as the Hellenistic Age, and featured a combination of Greek, Middle Eastern and Indian culture. Alexander himself was featured prominently in the history and myth of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. His exploits inspired a literary tradition in which he appeared as a legendary hero in the tradition of Achilles.
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A saying describing Turks tells that if women and football were present on the Moon, Turkish astronauts’ would reach there the first. I should admit that this seemed an exaggeration to me before. Now, having visited the country for several times, I must say that it is absolutely correct.
Turks are desperate of football and women. The latter interest can be explained easily, for women’s beauty has always been worshipped in East. Yet, the former passion is somewhat unexpected. Football is a relatively young sport in Turkey. Still, in a few years it gained the total control over Turkish men minds. The vast majority of Turkish men are supporters of some local team. Everywhere, everyday do the sellers of all sorts of T-shirts, flags, and scarfs with football emblems stand on Istanbul streets. All these "Besiktas", "Fenerbahce", and "Galatasaray" symbols are sold here in great numbers regardless of matches being played or delayed or abandoned!
I was leaving Istanbul for a little trip when "Galatasaray"-"Fenerbahce" match was just to begin. Here, Istanbul was full of supporter crowds who swarmed the streets from the evening. Amazingly, most of them sober. My trip included visiting a five-star hotel on the Marble Sea coast. A fine hotel, with warm seawater-filled pools where both tourists and locals love to stay for the whole day. In fact, there usually are more Turks than the tourists, in such sort of pools here. As I have said, people love swimming without getting out for hours...
Well, not that day!
Turks literally begged us, our guide, and our driver that we return back to Istanbul a little earlier than planned. We eventually agreed, and were not at all sorry, because all these pools will not disappear anywhere, whereas to see Istanbul in football passion is something!
... Huge crowds gathered in hotel lobbies, on Taksim streets, and on Taksim square where my hotel was located. Each group of the supporters had a plasma screen, or a TV. Chestnut seller watched these funny tiny TV’s having put them on their cold braziers. When goal attempts were made, the whole city screamed and cried. To note, there were really lots of goal attempts, for Turkish teams play only attacking football, especially when struggling against each other.
Fenerbahce scored. Good Heavens, what a sound these football fans produced! My word, that was an outstanding goal! Galatasaray was caught napping, Fenerbahce midfielder made a long pass to the right winger, the latter centered the ball, and the striker shot. Goal! The emotions blown were really outstanding. Let alone the Italians, Turks are no less passionate as far as football is concerned.
Now, Galatasaray got the game underway. The counter-attack of GS (Galatasaray is also called as GS, or Cim-Bom, or the yellow-reds by the fans) was well-interrupted by FB fullback (Fenerbahce is FB, or the canary, or the yellow-dark blues), and now the canaries possessed the ball. Here, FB attacking midfielder strikes viciously at the goal, and... It’s in again!!! FB score two goals in two minutes. Fantastic result! GS have now a mountain to climb...
Now, after the second goal of FB, Istanbul froze.
Silence lasted a minute or two, and!.. Big bang! That scream dedicated to the first goal was close to nothing when compared to the new one. I have no words to explain how bloody loud the situation got. GS scored a consolation goal, but that hardly helped...
Needless to say, during next two days all the newspapers did nothing but spoke of that magnificent match.
By the way, last months many tourists visit Istanbul to watch a football match, or an F1 race, or to listen to their favourite singer. The whole thing is called as the "event-tourism", getting more popular both in Europe and in other countries. Fortunately, stadiums, concert halls, and F1 track are very modern and visitor-friendly in Istanbul.
"It’s not that they are sort of not prepared to visiting the tourist places," guides say, "The point is that these people know what they need in the first turn very well. They go to watch the race, or to listen to "Depeche Mode", that’s the particular purpose. Nothing wrong about them."
In those few days they have before and after the activity they come for, the event tourists do whatever they feel like to. They visit the landmarks, or walk the city, or swim in the sea.
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