Rainy day in Istanbul

We went into the Blue Mosque today, which is an enormous house of prayer for Muslims. Astonishingly large and beautiful, the place is open to non-Muslims as well, which isn't the case with many mosques in this part of the world. The only thing is that you have to remove your shoes before you enter. They give you a little plastic bag for your shoes before you go in, and you see people carrying them around like they're ancient relics. There you are, looking up at the incredibly beautiful and colorful arches, with your trusty pair of boat shoes by your side in a plastic bag. Takes something away from the moment, I think.

Today was cool and rainy, so you can imagine what sort of odor a couple of hundred people wearing wet socks and carrying wet shoes could make. Think of your dog having been outside all day in the rain, and now he's come in and lain by the fire. Now let's say he brought 100 of his doggy friends with him. It was something like that.

We also went to the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul and spent several hours wandering around in that place. It seems that Istanbul has 8,000 years of history, and this place has items from pretty much every era. There are a ton of sarcophagi that Turkish archaeologists found in places as far away as Lebanon and then shipped to Turkey and put them in the museum, a curious pattern as the Turks passed a law more than 100 years ago that banned people from coming to Turkey, finding some antiquity and taking it back to their museums. That discrepancy aside, they are impressive. They have Egyptian tombs, Turkish tombs, Roman tombs, Greek tombs ... about everything but the Tomb Of The Unknown Archaeologist Caught Trying To Smuggle Something Out Of Turkey. One is called “The Alexander Sarcophagus,” in honor of Alexander the Great. No, he's not actually inside the thing. He was killed in Babylon – or died of malaria, poisoning, typhoid fever, viral encephalitis, or from the consequences of alcoholism, the encyclopedia isn't sure. I mean, it was 2,331 years ago, and the encyclopedia writers' memories aren't as sharp as they used to be. Think you could do better? What did you have for dinner last Tuesday?

It's called “The Alexander Sarcophagus” because there is a carved relief of Alexander killing someone on the thing, and what the hell, why not throw the guy a bone? He may have been poisoned, after all. Or he could have died at the age of 32 from too much booze. In either case, let's show a little sympathy to one of the greatest conquerers who was married to two princesses at the same time. “Alexander Tomb” it is.

Walking back in the rain, we passed the Hippodrome, where they used to hold chariot races to amuse the sultan. He could sit high above the crowd in a little box attached to a palace, eat dates, drink tea, crack jokes with his posse and win bets race after race, even when his horses didn't finish first. Who would be man enough to say, “Hey, Sultan, you know, your chariot didn't actually come in first in the last race?” You do that, and I'm betting that your spouse wouldn't have to worry about what present to get you for your next anniversary. The Hippodrome sports a great obelisk in the center of the track, sort of a miniature Washington Monument, but with hieroglyphics on it. Not withstanding the Turkish law mentioned before, it originally came from, that's right, Egypt. You know, there are laws and then there are laws. And somebody other than you, Mr. Foreign Archaeologist, gets to decide which ones get enforced and which ones get winked at.