The [Türk ve Islam] museum faces At Meydanı (the Roman/Byzantine hippodrome) and lies opposite the Sultan Ahmed Camii (or: Blue Mosque). This is the sight you get from one of the terraces of the building, which was erected in 1524 as a palace for Pargalı Ibrahim Paşa, who was the second grand vizier to Süleyman the Magnificent, and husband of the Sultan's sister, Hatice Sultan.

On the picture: The Obelisk of Thutmose III, that emperor Theodosius the Great had brought in 390 AD from Karnak (in Egypt) to adorn the Hippodrome, and the Blue Mosque with its six minarets.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.