After reading the description … “Topkapı Palace and Harem are likely to have more colourful stories than most of the world’s museums put together. Libidinous sultans, ambitious courtiers, beautiful concubines and scheming eunuchs lived and worked here between the 15th and 19th centuries when it was the court of the Ottoman empire. A visit to the palace’s opulent pavilions, jewel-filled Treasury and sprawling Harem gives a fascinating glimpse into their lives.” … from the official website, my interest was piqued, and I knew we had to go to check it out!
The six floors of this beautiful palace built in 1453 housed all the Ottoman sultans continuously for over 400 years through to when Sultan Abdülmecid in 1853 decided to move the court to the Dolmabahçe Palace. It was the center of all cultural, educational, religious, and administrative activity for the Ottoman Empire. Topkapi translates to ‘Cannongate’ and due to its elevated defensive position on Seraglio Point, you can see why it was called that.
The palace had everything that the sultans and their staff needed to function independently, and was like a small city within the greater city of Constantinople in which it stood.
You could easily spend a whole day here, but most people do not have a full day and they prioritize the Harem as their first location within Topkapi palace to visit. With this in mind, lines can get long as the number of visitors per day to this area is restricted, so get there early and go there first.
There is so much to see and read that I wont detail it here, but make sure you get to the armory, library, treasury, courtyards, harem, stables and kitchen as they all have something of interest.
There are no ‘human’ led guides, but you can rent an audio tour that comes in over a dozen different languages.
The Harem
The Harem has its own dedicated ticket that you need to buy. They do this so that they can limit the number of visitors each day, so make sure you get there early to be able to visit.
The you think of a harem you immediately think of a room where carnal and debaucherous acts were performed. However, ‘harem’ literally means ‘forbidden’ or ‘private’, and this describes the most private inner sanctum of the Sultans family residence. Also the harem is more than a single room. Topkapi’s harem consists of over 300 room spanning six floors (of only one that can be visited).
Though a Sultan under Islamic law could only have 4 wives, some sultans supported up to 300 concubines at one time. They really did support them too, as they paid for them to be educated in different languages, as well as reading, writing, music, dance and embroidery.
