Went to the Blue Mosque in the morning with the thousands of other tourists even though we had got up early. It was very nice but not as grand as the Museum of Haghia Sophia. The blue mosque is still a working mosque so access was limited to the main dome, but it was worth the look. We then had some lunch, yes another kebab, and decided to go the archaeological museum in the after noon. The guide book suggests that it should take about 3 hr to look around. We started in the statue gallery, where I was impressed with the marble statues from around the 6th century BC. However after about 2 hrs of looking at statues and sarcophagi we thought we should be about finished, and realised that we has seen about 1/8th of the place! We hurried up looking through the 6000 yr old pottery artefact and small statues which were too numerous to even begin to count, and the flew through the Egyptian part of the museum, and by the end 6000year old artefacts appeared new! It is strange the perceptions of us Aussies to old!
We also went to the hippodrome, where the chariot races used to be held, but not much of that exists now, except 2 big towers. The cistern was fantastic. it is a large undeground man mage lake with a covered roof and lots of columes. ths particular one is made form the ruins of other buildings and has 2 medusas heads which would have sat just under the water.
Both picture inside the Blue Mosque
Part of the Hipodrome ruin
The underground cistern (lake)
The Medusa heads
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