If I have one takeaway from today’s Bosphorus tour and yesterday’s visit to Topkapı Palace, it’s that the sultans had it good. First pick of all the meat and produce in the entire empire, a staff of thousands to wait on you, and a harem of concubines for when you get bored with your four wives. Not to mention a dozen-odd palaces, pavilions (don’t think gazebo, think über-mansion), and summer homes up either side of the Bosphorus.
For 391 years of the 624-year Ottoman Empire, the sultan lived in his harem with his concubines, his staff of black eunuchs, his staff of white eunuchs, his sons, and his mom. I think seeing my mother around all the sex slaves I’m indiscriminately banging would be a turnoff, but maybe that sort of mentality is why I’m not the sultan.
Fortunately, any peasant with 45 lira can enjoy Topkapı Palace and the harem within (minus the concubines). And any peasant with another 25 can take the Şehir Hatları Nostalgic Bosphorus Cruise, admiring the incredible blue of the strait and the gorgeous homes of other, wealthier people all the way from from Eminönü to Anadolu Kavağı.
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