In the fall of 2010 My wife and I travelled to Turkey as part of a small group tour. We spent several days in Istanbul, and I was fascinated with the many tiles and other decorations in the buildings we visited, and took numerous photographs of them. In this portfolio I have included photographs from the Rustem Pasha Mosque and the Topkapi Palace, and one from the Hagia Sophia. All but two of these are of the amazing ceramic tiles, most of which are Iznik tiles from the 16th century, the acme of Iznik ceramic production. The other two are photographs of the decoration of the domes of the Rustem Pasha Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. In order to make the detail of the tiles more easily seen, I have generally selected only a small section of the original photograph to show here. The majority of the tiles depict floral or floral-like patterns, but two of the photographs show something quite different. "Tiles #11, Rustem Pasha Mosque" shows, in the midst of a floral pattern, a single tile which depicts schematically the arrangement of the minarets and other buildings near the mosque at Mecca, while "Tiles #13, Topkapi Palace" depicts the scene at Mecca during the pilgrimage season. The Arabic above the three 'tents' identifies them (left to right) as the Yemeni, Egyptian and Syrian headquarters.

Last modified 2011.02.10