Mosques, Palaces and other wonderful wonders of the world

For our first couple of days we arranged for a guide through one of my Starbucks co-workers in Turkey (Alev) and it was her personal friend (Umut) a very affible fellow who took us on the tour.

To be a guide, you need to get a masters degree in Architecture and History then pass tests and get a license to be an official tour guide. Not an easy task. Umut was a wealth of information rattling off stories and statistics about everything we saw until our heads were numb. At some point in the heat and 6 full hours of non-stop touring except to break for lunch and the occasional potty break it is difficult to absorb all the information he was giving us at the end of the day. He was an Energizer Bunny and didn't seem to know why we wanted to stop and kept suggesting more places to visit. I didn't see him eat or drink much of anything but I think the chain smoking kept him going. Everyone smokes here. It is hard to take a breath without it.
It goes without saying, the mosques are beautiful! Below is the Blue Mosque.

What struck me most is that it is amazing to see more incredible technical engineering here as I saw in Paris. Especially to think it was built centuries ago. They were so clever and thought out a lot of things to make themselves comfortable. Like a pebbled walkway they poured water over so the breeze would carry cool wind through the courtyard when it was hot. They used a mozaic of stones carefully laid to look beautiful but it was also functional in that it held water in small puddles. This of course was in the Sulten's Palace because he really needed to be comfortable with all the body heat his Harem of 1000 women created.

Nothing like the liberated women you see in this photo (wink) Although I do miss my prince...Hi Steven.
Then think about the incredible Aquaduct built by the Romans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valens_Aqueduct and Cisterns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern they build to carry water for the Palace and for the city in general all those many years ago.
All of this is fascinating to me. Of course I like the touristy stuff. But I really like to know how things work and how people lived all those years ago.  I have more interesting tales to tell but must go to bed now as we are packing up and flying to Ismir to see the ruins of Ephesus and it is already late.
I hope to have a good internet connection down south so I can continue my tale.
Until then...sweet dreams
Teri, Shan and Angela