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December 10, 2005
Saturday
 
 
The Bazaar and the Bizarre
Perry de Havilland (London)  Sui Generis
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A few more pictures from grimy, chaotic, interesting Istanbul...

istanbul_10_nato_lorz.jpg

Turkey... NATO member and on the frontline of the struggle for secularism

istanbul_11_hagia_sophia_lorz.jpg

Hagia Sophia, now a museum, is a fitting place to ponder the fact civilisations and not just nations sometimes disappear

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Perhaps the coolest place in Istanbul is a cistern, built by Justinian! It is unknown why the two statues of medusa are sideways and upside-down

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The bazaars and streets are insanely busy and...

istanbul_34_santa_of_death_lorz.jpg

... you see the strangest things!

I must say I find the place fascinating, though my travelling companion might use rather different words.

Comments

My guess as to why the two statues of the medusa are upside down or turned sideways is that both were taken from another structure.

Justinian's people did not carve them - they just said "big bits of stone - useful".

To turn something upside down or on its side is simply a gesture of contempt (or indifference) for such pagan things.

At least this is better than defacing the stone work (which was sometimes done).


Posted by Paul Marks at December 12, 2005 05:58 PM
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