Ten Days in Istanbul

Our last day in Istanbul. We're tired, and the weather is lovely,  so we decide to spend the day riding ferries. I had thought we could find ferries to take us from ferry landing to ferry landing up the Bosphorus to stop and see sights along the coast, but alas, we could not find these ferries, so eventually we opted for the short one-hour cruise.

The fortress at Rumeli Hisari was built on the European side of the Bosphorus by Mehmet II, the Conqueror,  to match  an older fortress on the opposite Asian side, allowing him to control all traffic on the water as he laid siege to the city of Constantinople.  800 years of failed attempts required some new clever strategies to succeed. He bypassed the chain used to close the Golden Horn, by having his army carry 80 galleys overland from the Bosphorus on a mile long plank road he built.  The ships could then be launched directly into the Golden Horn. The siege lasted less than two months.

Looking up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea whose borders include Turkey, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Ukraine,
 and Russia. The Bosphorus is only 20 miles long, but its strategic importance is incalculable.
It is Russia's only outlet to the Mediterranean Sea.

It is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes with tankers and container ships
— this one said Chicago on the front — carrying grain from Europe's breadbasket and oil from Russia .

After supper at the favorite fish restaurant we had eaten at earlier in the week,
we took a last look at the exterior of the magisterial Haghia Sophia.