Page 10 - Turkey Tour 2018 27th February (compiled)_Classical

has been designed so that even when it is at its most crowded, everyone in the mosque can see and hear the
imam.
[5]
The royal kiosk is situated at the south-east corner. It comprises a platform, a loggia and two small retiring rooms. It
gives access to the royal loge in the south-east upper gallery of the mosque. These retiring rooms became the
headquarters of the Grand Vizier during the suppression of the rebellious Janissary Corps in 1826. The royal loge
(hünkâr mahfil) is supported by ten marble columns. It has its own mihrab, which used to be decorated with
a jade rose and gilt and with one hundred Qurans on an inlaid and gilded lecterns.
[8]
[7]
The many lamps inside the mosque were once covered with gold and gems. Among the glass bowls one could find
[9]
ostrich eggs and crystal balls. All these decorations have been removed or pillaged for museums.
[10]
The great tablets on the walls are inscribed with the names of the caliphs and verses from the Quran. They were
originally by the great 17th-century calligrapher Seyyid Kasim Gubari of Diyarbakır but have been repeatedly restored

Sources:

Wikipedia
Hippodrome of Constantinople

The Hippodrome of Constantinople (Greek: Ἱππόδρομος τῆς
Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit. Hippódromos tēs Kōnstantinoupóleōs) was
a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of
the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet
Meydanı (Sultan Ahmet Square) in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with a few
fragments of the original structure surviving.

The word hippodrome comes from the Greek hippos (ἵππος), horse,
and dromos (δρόμος), path or way. For this reason, it is sometimes also
called Atmeydanı ("Horse Square") in Turkish. Horse racing and chariot
racing were popular pastimes in the ancient world and hippodromes were
common features of Greek cities in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine era.

History and use[edit]

Although the Hippodrome is usually associated with Constantinople's days of glory as an imperial capital, it actually
predates that era. The first Hippodrome was built when the city was called Byzantium, and was a provincial town of
moderate importance. In AD 203 the Emperor Septimius Severus rebuilt the city and expanded its walls, endowing it
with a hippodrome, an arena for chariot races and other entertainment.
In AD 324, the Emperor Constantine the Great decided to move the seat of the government from Rome to Byzantium,
which he renamed Nova Roma (New Rome). This name failed to impress and the city soon became known as
Constantinople, the City of Constantine. Constantine greatly enlarged the city, and one of his major undertakings was
the renovation of the Hippodrome. It is estimated that the Hippodrome of Constantine was about 450 m (1,476 ft)
long and 130 m (427 ft) wide. Its stands were capable of holding 100,000 spectators.
The race-track at the Hippodrome was U-shaped, and the Kathisma (emperor's lodge) was located at the eastern end
of the track. The Kathisma could be accessed directly from the Great Palace through a passage which only the
emperor or other members of the imperial family could use. The Hippodrome Boxes, which had four statues of horses
in gilded copper on top, stood at the northern end; and the Sphendone (curved tribune of the U-shaped structure, the
lower part of which still survives) stood at the southern end. These four gilded horses, now called the Horses of Saint
Mark, whose exact Greek or Roman ancestry has never been determined, were looted during the Fourth Crusade in
1204 and installed on the façade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice. The track was lined with other bronze statues of
famous horses and chariot drivers, none of which survive. The hippodrome was filled with statues of gods, emperors
and heroes, among them some famous works, such as a Heracles by Lysippos, Romulus and Remus with their wolf
and the Serpent Column of the Plataean tripod. In his book De Ceremoniis (book II,15, 589), the
[1]
emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus described the decorations in the hippodrome at the occasion of the visit
of Saracen or Arab visitors, mentioning the purple hangings and rare tapestries.
[2]