After passing the Gate of Salutations (security checks and showing your ticket) we get to the second courtyard. No one but the Sultan was allowed to ride a horse there. Just outside the gate decapitations would take place, the executioner could wash his hands in a nearby fountain. Heads would be displayed on one of two nearby Example Stones.
The courtyard presents as a large empty space, with a colonnade to its right (beyond which are the kitchens housing a fine porcelain collection), an entrance to the stables to the left (they were being restored in 205-2016, they used to house some special exhibitions on occasion, and its gardens held architectural fragments), and slightly further to the left the Divan (I gave it a special sub-gallery, though keeping some pictures here to in order to provide some continuity) as well as the entrance to the Harem. In 2017 I found that entrance had been moved to the third courtyard. Instead one could, at roughly the same spot, but going to the left rather than straight on, visit the quarters of the guardsmen. I gave those a separate gallery also.

At the far side is the Bab-üs Saadet or Gate of Felicity, leading to the third courtyard.