On the way there, we saw some cats. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of street cats (and dogs). Today we saw TONS of cats!
The Archaeology Museum has gorgeous pieces of the tiled Ishtar Gate (the gate to ancient Babylon), including the one above. I saw other pieces of the Gate at the Pergamon in Berlin. And actually the museum I work at now (the Oriental Institute) has two lion segments as well.
This enormous Neo-Hittite relief has engravings of Luwian hieroglyphs near the king's head.
a bowl that Annaliese really liked
the sarcophagus of THE Alexander the Great!! at least according to the sign; Mom says it's actually only the tomb of a Sidonian king…
After that museum we went into the Topkapı palace. The above is part of the Harem quarters of the palace. This is where the Ottoman emperors' harem, their wives and concubines, lived.
Outside Topkapı, Annaliese fed some cats and birds.
Then we went back to the Archaeology Museum to the Tiled Kiosk (one of the three buildings it consists of). It has a small but nice collection of iznik tiles and ware.
This evening we're going to a new place (Doydoy or "Full-full") for dinner and then are going to play cards with the young man, Fatih, who works the desk at our hotel.
