Day 6 Revisit Part 4 - Topkapi Palace

Day Six Revisit Part 4 - Friday June 11 - Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace

After lunch, we walked about 5 minutes to the Topkapi Palace. This is the palace of the Ottoman Sultans, and was very opulent. It was transformed into a museum in 1924. We went through two archways, then a security checkpoint, and got into some massive garden grounds. On the grounds, we sat under some shade while Pastor Wayne taught about Logos - the Word. Scriptural references: Prov 30:5, 2 Cor 4:1-2. Wayne made the point that Constantine had 50 copies of the Bible made in 357 AD and this was the equivalent in today's dollars of the budget for establishing a local library such as Frisco Public Library. The next emperor after Constantine then established an edict that other items besides the Bible would be copied and stored, becoming a scriptorium of all knowledge. This was when books started becoming reference items instead of just reading items, and some brilliant guy had the idea to cut them into pages and bind them into books. (Pastor Wayne's best book in 2009: The Archimedes Codex.)

Grafted Fig Tree

One of the very interesting items that we saw was a Sycamore(?) tree that had a Fig Tree growing out of it, about 6 feet above ground! The story is that a bird dropped a fig into a crevice in the tree, and it grafted itself in and started growing. Pastor Wayne related how this mirrors us: as gentiles we have been grafted in to the promises of the Jews through the saving grace of Jesus Christ. (Rom 11:17-24)

After that, we had some free time to wander the Topkapi Palace. Rooms with Sultans's robes, crown jewels (including an 86 carat clear diamond), rooms with the Sultan's couches, etc.

Grand Bazaar Entrance

From there, we got on the bus and drove to the Grand Bazaar. This is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. 1200 individual shops. Over a quarter of a million (> 250,000) visitors daily. A veritable madhouse of humanity. We had about 30 minutes, and a few people bought some souvenirs.

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Dale's Pics for Day 6 - Topkapi Palace: here