Turkey
The Sultanate of Women represents a fascinating period in Ottoman history. It began around 1533, when Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent married Hurrem Sultan. It concluded with the death of ...
The Sultanate of Women represents a fascinating period in Ottoman history. It began around 1533, when Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent married Hürrem Sultan. It concluded with the death of ...
Of all the Byzantine churches in Istanbul, the Theotokos Kyriotissa was the last one I saw during my visit to the city in July 2025. I've been to Istanbul many times before, but it was only ...
Do you know that, apart from the famous Byzantine wonder that everyone knows, there is also the Little Hagia Sophia? Certainly, I didn't. But that's because I had never really explored ...
Imagine a city that served as a centre of the Christian Orthodox faith for a thousand years and later became a centre of the Islamic Caliphate for four centuries. When Sultan Selim I ...
I am not very lucky with the Pammakaristos Monastery. I went to see this former Byzantine chuch in 2019, at the very start of my travels around Turkey in Istanbul. I remember the entire ...
You may ask what the connection between Christ Pantokrator and Molla Zeyrek is. I am sure that everyone knows who Jesus Christ is, but I suspect that far fewer people have heard of Molla ...
So, which one was the church for Ottoman sultans in Istanbul? Clearly, Ottoman sultans didn't need a church, they built and prayed in mosques. It is therefore remarkable that Hagia Eirene, ...
The last time I visited Hagia Sophia was in 2019, when I travelled around Turkey. I started that particular trip in Istanbul, where I stayed for a week before departing for Bursa. Even ...
It is almost impossible to talk about Byzantine churches in Istanbul. After the conquest of Constantinople 572 years ago, the Ottomans converted almost all Christian Orthodox temples into ...
