I am spending my summer in Istanbul this year. Having left this charming city thirteen years ago for graduate work, I must confess that I have really missed hanging out here. I hadn’t realized it until I actually came out here (for not so jovial reasons initially, but things are improving slowly). I have been working as well, for sure, but also I am getting out and attending Jazz concerts/clubs, exhibits, shows, and really getting into the culture of things… which, I must confess, I have been missing out on lately for one reason or another.

Yesterday, I ended up going to an exhibit on Istanbul that is currently taking place in Sakip Sabanci Museum which used to be the mansion of one of the wealthiest families in Turkey. His mansion overlooks the Bosphorus and therefore is privy to an outstanding view. Over the summer, various Jazz concerts take place in the gorgeous gardens of the house. He is also famous for being a big collector of art, and several years ago, he turned his mansion into a museum. Currently, Legendary Istanbul is in exhibit. The exhibit is designed as an outstanding experience that relates the history of Istanbul. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the museum is overlooking the very waters whose history it is recounting. You can feel the story of Istanbul in your bones through and through.

The museum starts by a brief movie summarizing the region’s past from the BC years with digitally mastered images and maps explaining how communities populated the region or how it may have looked like at the time. From then on, the artifacts found in the region are exhibited room by room, empire by empire, from emperors to sultans. As the Christian era ends with the conquest of Istanbul by the Turks in 1453, you are already standing in awe at the face of history. The exhibit even has the chains used to block the water traffic of Golden Horn in order to protect then-Constantinople from foreign invasion. Guests are then reminded that, when faced with these chains and finding it difficult to break through, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror actually had his fleet move on the ground and penetrated into the city. Outstanding war strategy and determination to conquer one single city… And of course, the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Turkish Republic… As the exhibit comes to a close, you enter into a room surrounded by the images of the skyline of Istanbul changing over time, the skyline as it was depicted during the Venetians all the way up to its current condition. Exhibited on the wall and projected on the artificial dome placed in the center of the room, you see the domes of each mosque that is found in Istanbul. Leaving the exhibit gives you the feeling of having just left a fairy tale. Truly an exceptional design of the Istanbul experience.