Turkey
Holiday in May 2004...
It started in a horrible hotel but it ended in the Intercontinental
One of our most favourite spots on earth....
nice restaurants, friendly people, gorgeous boys and hot nights
what can you want more in this life ?
We celibrated the New Year in Istanbul. We left on the 29th of December 2005 and came back home on the 5th of January 2006. We had a lovely time. The weather was gorgeous, the dinner on New Year's eve was exquisite and of course, as usual, the gay bars with the typical Turkish pop and the boys belly dancing, made our stay unforgetable.
The basilica cistern, located in the historical peninsula of Istanbul, is one of the few early architectural examples that have survived till the present age. This glamourous underground cistern was build during the reign of emperor Justinianus in the 6th century AD, the age of glory for the Eastern Roman Empire. The cistern is 143 meter long and 65 meter wide and covers a total area of about 9800 square meters. There are 336 marble columns in the cistern, each 9 meter high. The columns are arranged in 12 rows each consisting of 28 columns. The capitals of the columns are mainly in the Ionic and Corinthian style, with the exception of a few in the Doric style with no engravings. The cistern is surrounded by a firebrick wall with a thickness of 4 meter and coated with a special mortar for insulation against water. The cistern's water was provided from the Belgrade woods, which lie 19 km north of the city.
In the cistern one can see scupltures of Medusa. She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Athena, the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her beautiful ringlets into hissing serpents. She became a cruel monster of so frightening an aspect that no living thing could behold her without being turned into stone. All around the cavern where she dwelt might be seen the stony figures of men and animals which had chanced to catch a glimpse of her and had been petrified with the sight. Perseus, favored by Athena and Hermes, the former of whom lent him her shield and the latter his winged shoes, approached Medusa while she slept, and taking care not to look directly at her, but guided by her image reflected in the bright shield which he bore, he cut off her head and gave it to Athena, who fixed it in the middle of her Aegis.
Efes
