2014 Biking Turkey Daily Snippet

26 October, Istanbul
Haci Mimi Apartment 53TL

I ran out of energy long before we ran out of museum, but thoroughly enjoyed some of the items showcased in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. We were on the lookout for the world’s first peace treaty signed between the Egyptians and the Hittites in 1258BC, and there it was, a portion only, cuneiform on clay. Other clay documents include: a receipt of four sheep and one she-goat for the fee of a religious purification conducted by an exorcist (1134BC); an economic tablet mentioning quantities of barley, flour, bread and beer (2500BC); the Code of Hammurabi (King of Babylon, 1790BC); a legal document about the purchase of a house. The blue and yellow glazed-brick panels that once lined the processional street and the Ishtar gate of ancient Babylon were pretty eye-catching. The very elaborate sarcophagi, while impressive, did not appeal to me as much as a predominantly plain coffin in marble from Palestine dated 5th century BC. From near the old railway station, end point of the Orient Express, for a complete change of pace, we took the Marmaray line that runs for 13.6km beneath the Bosphorus linking European and Asian Istanbul. A tunnel under the Bosphorus strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, was first suggested by the Ottoman sultan Abdülmejid in 1860. The line was opened in October 2013 and is the world’s deepest underwater railway tunnel. We shopped for dinner in Asian Istanbul and came home by ferry in the late afternoon in soft light and an icy wind.