When the Turks conquered Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in 1453, they made it the capital of their Ottoman Empire. The conquest was led by Sultan Mehmet II Fatih (the Conqueror).

Mehmet initially lived in the palace of the Roman Emperors at Blachernae ¹, but it was old and dilapidated, so he decided to build a new palace. Really? Or did he live at the Old Palace where the University is now? The location was the First Hill of Constantinople. This was the high point at the junction of two waterways: the Bosphorus Strait which separates Europe from Asia, and the Golden Horn which separated the historic cente of the city from the new town of Galata (now known as Beyoglu) where many foreign traders such as the Genoese lived. The First Hill was where the original Greek city of Byzantion had stood before the Romans took it over and made it the capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD. By the time of the conquest, this area had become the site of a giant hospital. Mehmet ordered the whole site to be cleared and a new palace to be built from scratch.

Mehmet's palace was enormous and sprawling, taking over the whole end of the peninsula. Nowadays we call it the Topkapi Palace, but at the time it was just called the Palace. In Turkish this was 'Sarayi', pronounced 'Sa-rye-uh'. It gave us the Italian word Seraglio.

By the standard of European palaces, the Topkapi is unusual in a number of respects:

1. It was heavily fortified with huge walls between it and the rest of the city.

2. Most of the palace is very low, being mainly single story buildings around a series of courtyards.

3. Many of the buildings had wide entrances with no doors. In the summer these were open to the air keeping the insides cool and airy - Istanbul can get quite hot in the summer. In the Winter, hangings would cover these openings to keep out the cold winds.

4. The palace observed a strict demarcation between public areas open to visitors and the private area reserved for the Sultan, his family and his concubines. This area, known as the Harem (pronounced 'Hah-rem'), was the exclusive abode of females, with the exception of the Sultan himself, male children of the Sultan and black slaves who were eunuchs. When the male children grew up to be adults they had to leave the Palace and live elsewhere.

The design of low and open buildings is said to have been inspired by the tent cities of the Ottomans when they were still nomadic. The Turks were much happier out of doors than most Europeans, and had many of their ceremonies in the open air.

The Topkapi Palace had a huge staff - there were more than 1,000 people working there, cooking, cleaning, organising, and administering the Empire. There were many gardens in the palace, so there were gardeners; there was a small menagerie with wild animals, birds and even an elephant. Many of the buildings used by these people are no longer there, but the main buildings at the centre of the palace, where the Sultan himself would have lived, are still standing although unfortunately none of the furniture in them has survived.

The Topkapi was eventually abandoned in the mid-19th Century when the Sultan moved to the new Dolmabahçe Palace further north in the newer part of Istanbul (as the city had by then become known). It is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city

The Name

As mentioned already, the Palace was just called the Palace in the time of Mehmet. The name Topkapi means "cannon gate" - it is in fact used for one of the gates in the walls of the city, about 8km to the west. It's not entirely clear why this name came to be attached to the palace. One theory is that there was a cannon outside a small gate at the back entrance to the palace. This became known as the cannon gate, and from there the name spread to the whole palace. An undated German map of the city which looks 19th-century marks the palace as 'Serai humajun' without any mention of Topkapi, but a building on the headland just north of the palace (where the back gate would have been) is marked 'Top Kapu Sommer Harem'

The First Gate - the Imperial Gate

The palace presents itself to the city of Istanbul as a giant wall about 12m high just to the north of Hagia Sophia. The wall is made of the typical Byzantine pink stone. The gate itself is in grey stone and looks like a Roman triumphal arch set into the wall. There's a huge central arch with two smaller insets in the shape of arches on either side. These are purely for the look - there's no access through them. The passage through the gateway is 15 metres long before you emerge into the first courtyard - the walls are not this thick - the gatehouse extends behind the wall. Within the arch, above the doorway are inscriptions in Turkish written in the calligraphic Arabic script that was used during the Ottoman Empire.

Members of the public can walk freely through this gate.

The First Courtyard

The first courtyard is the biggest. Today it is mainly used as a queuing area for the tourists, who must buy their tickets here and queue to get through the next gate. There are many trees which provide welcome shade from the sun while queuing. In Ottoman times, the lawns would have been covered by the tents of the army - the Sultan kept a large number of soldiers around him for protection.

When buying a ticket you can pay to see just the courtyards, or both the courtyards and the Harem. It is worth paying the extra to see the Harem as it contains some of the best decorative works.

In the left (southwest) corner of the courtyard, you will see a small Byzantine church. This is Hagia Eirene. Because it was in the grounds of the palace it was not open to the public so it was never converted into a mosque. As a result, it is more-or-less unchanged since the time of the conquest. The church building was used as an ammunition store but has been recently restored. It's very plain inside - a reflection of the austere era of Byzantine history when icons were forbidden. The only decoration in the church is a plain mosaic of a cross. One unusual feature of the church is the five steps behind the altar which were seats for the clergy. This is one of the few examples of this that has survived. Entry in the church is included in the main Topkapi Palace ticket. You can also pay separately to see just the church, but it is rather expensive considering that there's not much to see.

The Second Gate - the Gate of Salutation

This is the most distinctive gate of the palace. There are octagonal towers with conical roofs on each side of the gate. Between the towers is a wall with battlements on the top and a giant arch.

The Second Courtyard

This courtyard is accessible to tourists who have bought a ticket. In the past, visiting dignitaries, officials etc would have been allowed as far as this courtyard.

Entering the courtyard, you will see directly in front of you the Third Gate. To the left of the gate is the main building of the Palace, the Harem, with its tall tower, the Tower of Justice.

The Harem is described later in this Guide Entry.

Just to the left of the Harem is a gateway and a set of steps leading down to a set of buildings which are almost like a small village - the quarters of the xxxx.

The Imperial Chamber

Set into the building of the Harem but kept separate from it and opening only onto the courtyard is the Imperial Chamber. This is where the Sultan would meet with his ministers to discuss the government of the Empire. The room has a wide doorway, with low bench seats around three sides.

In the middle of one wall you will see a grill. This dates back to a time when the Sultan was particularly ineffectual so his mother took control of the Empire and ruled in his stead. But even though she was the ruler of a vast empire, custom still dictated that she could not be seen by any man other than her relatives, so she sat in a room behind the wall and listened to the discussion through this grill before giving her orders to the ministers.

The Clock Museum

To the right of the Imerial Chamber is a small exhibition room holding a selection of clocks, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Third Gate - the Gate of Felicity

This is the most exotic of the gates - it has an enormous Ottoman roof, which extends outwards far beyond the building it covers. Many ceremonies were held in front of this gate.

Normally the only people who were allowed past this gate were family members, but there were occasional days when the ordinary people could petition the Sultan directly. When you walk through the gate, you see the Petition Building directly in front of you, so close that you can see nothing of the Third Courtyard. Inside the petition building, the Sultan would listen to his people's pleas and would pass out his judgement on the spot, which was final with no appeal.

The Third Courtyard

Walking to either the left or right of the Petition Building you enter the Third Courtyard. This was the courtyard reserved for the Sultan and his family. It is a very pleasant garden with buildings such as a small mosque and the Sultan's library dotted around it. Around two of the side of the courtyard are low buildings which would have originally been the quarters of many of the officials of the Palace but now are the 'Treasuries'. They are museum displays of the various things belonging to the Sultan:

The Costume Treasury

The Sacred Relics - because the Ottoman Empire at one time encompassed the entire Muslim world, the Sultan had his pick of all the best treasures relating to Islam. So here you will find items believed to belong to important figures of Islam, of Christianity and of Judaism. These include: the Staff of Moses, the Head of John the Baptist (in a silver container), the Cooking Pot of Abraham, a cloak and a sword belonging to Muhammad and other items.

The Harem building opens onto the Third Courtyard as well as the Second, so the residents could enjoy the gardens without having to be seen by anybody outside the family.

The Fourth Courtyard

There's no ceremonial gate between the Third and Fourth Courtyards, just a gap between the buildings. You've now past the top of the hill so you go down slightly as you go into the fourth courtyard.

Here you will find some nice pavilions with lots of low seats and windows looking out on the sea on both sides of the hill. There's a Room of Circumcision - the Circumision was an important ceremony in the life of any male, something equivalent to a Baptism in the Christian world. There's also a nice pool with fountains.

One modern addition is a restaurant, constructed on the side of the hill so that it hangs out over the side of the cliff, offering great views and also fitting a large number of tables in without disturbing the structure of the Palace. Here you can either get self-service or waiter-service food.

The Harem