The guidebook Strolling through Istanbul, after describing the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque, mentions that “across the street […] is one of the most famous baroque fountains, known as Tophane Çeşmesi. Built in 1732 by Mahmut I it has marble walls completely covered with floral designs and arabesques carved in low relief and originally painted and gilded.” It goes on indicating the roof was lacking, but has been restored, and the fact that this spot, with the mosque and general surroundings, used to be a favorite subjects with etchers of the 18th and 19th century.

And then some fools made a fire in one of the receptacles for the water and made a mess of it. There is no end to human destruction (as we all know, but is nasty to see it). Elsewhere near Galata Tower I saw people sprayed what were extremely rudimentary portraits of Atatürk on similarly beautiful fountains. Nothing is sacred to people with an opinion who feel a craving to ventilate it. Oh well, I heard on radio today that the first “tourists” to Pompei scratched their names in some fresco’s, among them someone who became a famous Dutch painter.