Euro Spring 2015 Pictures - Part Three - The Blue Mosque and Bascilica Cistern

Well now that we're in Malta, chilling, I've gone through all the Istanbul pictures and am ready to spew them Vesuvius like in an explosion of photo posts!

I'm going start out with the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern.

The Blue Mosque

The challenge for me in taking pictures is trying to capture the grandiosity of the building as a whole with the limited capabilities of the phone camera.

Coming to the mosque

From its inner courtyard

Trying to capture the whole of the dome

Studies of the pillars, arches, and decorations

The Basilica Cistern

Build during the time of Justinian, it was one of many water storage areas for the city.  When you look at it, remember this is basically a water tank!  But the Byzantines put design into everything.  It was hard to get shots because it was so dark inside.

One of the more curious aspects of this building is the builders used existing columns from elsewhere whenever possible so few of the pillars look the same.

And there was one place where there were two Medusa's (one on the side and one upside down) supporting the columns