Sakip Sabanci Museum

The Sabanci family is a well established industrial family in many business sectors in Turkey.  There is also a university and a museum in Emirgan, on the Bosphorus.

The museum is housed in what was once a family home, called the horse house, due to the horse statues at the Bosphorus level and also the higher house level.

The museum has an exhibit titled "Across - The Cyclades and Western Anatolia during the 3rd Millenium BC".  The Cyclades are Greek islands between modern day Turkey and Greece, which have been inhabited and have traded with coastal Anatolia (the Asian side of Turkey) for milleniums.   The large sign out front depicts one of the artifacts on loan from a Greek museum. 

There are also artifacts from several Turkish museums, all of which date to the time period 3000 BC to 2000 BC.

A map in the gift shop shows the islands.  Although unreadable in my picture, each of the white words represent an inhabited location during that time period.  A wooden boat was used by these peoples to row between the islands and the coasts of the adjacent mainlands.

The museum does not allow photography, but they do have school groups, who tour the exhibits and then work on creating their own artifact out of white clay.  Without needing to dry, the students were able to use markers to color their artwork.  When I asked in English, if I could take a picture, the heads nodded "yes" and the mouths sent the message of "yabanci"  or foreigner down the row.

The Sakip Sabanci museum is on a beautiful piece of property with views of the Bosphorus, and ...

beautiful gardens, ...

with artifacts displayed throughout.  And just when you think you might want to stretch out on the grass, ...

that spot is taken by another lovely artifact.

A stop by the waterfall and water lily pond, ...

to say goodbye to the resident frog.

More information about the museum is available at www.muze.sabanciuniv.edu   The current exhibit is on display until August 28, 2011. 

Emirgan Park

Emirgan Park is one of the largest parks in Istanbul. I had attempted a visit in the summer, but the walk up the hill from the Bosphorus was too intimidating. Today I attended a luncheon at a home near an exit from the park at its highest elevation. As I was on foot, rather than in a car, it was no problem to step over the metal grate that would puncture tires entering this exit. Emirgan Park is famous for its tulips in the spring, so I will be visiting again at that time. But it was beautiful today also. Within the park, there are three pavillions, named for their colors. We have the White Pavillion, ... the Yellow Pavillion, which was open today for dining, and...

the Pink Pavillion.

Throughout the park, there are many walking trails, picnic tables, park benches, ...

a water fountain, with ducks and ...

a friendly swan. Not many people were in the park, as we are now in our second week of school and this was early afternoon. I imagine weekends are another story.

The grounds were magnificantly kept. Gardeners were working in several areas. My favorites in the park were the tree with the pink flowers, and ...

the knotted up tree.

I walked downward through the park and ended up at the Bosphorus, where I took the bus to Bebek and the ferry back to the Asian side. A to be repeated visit to Emirgan Park.