Lighting shop (Istanbul is full of chandeliers), with shopkeeper in the background.

Busy café off Taksim Square: chatty young people, tea in glasses (no milk), coffee in espresso cups, glacé fruits & baklava, tiled portraits & landscapes on the walls.

Rooftops of the outbuildings of the Suleymaniye Camii, looking over the Golden Horn to Galata Tower and (on the right) over the Bosphorus to Asia. Extensive mosque outbuildings used to house schools, hospitals, libraries & kitchens to feed the poor.

Drinking water at the Sublime Porte, for hundreds of years the entrance to the epicentre of the vast Ottoman Empire’s government.  Istanbul has exquisite taps (that still work) and this is my favourite.

Sweetmeats at the Hafiz Mustafa café.

Star of David circular window & minaret behind: this used to be a synagogue & is now a mosque, with a kiosk café on the ground floor.

The old district of Pera: hilly Montmartre meets historic Palermo.  Not all the old houses have been renovated – oriel windows like this are common.

Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), at night.  Holy Wisdom appears in the Hebrew scriptures (Hokhmah), is closely identified with God and is consistently female.  “When he established the heavens, I was there.” Proverbs 8:27.  Hagia Sophia was a church 537-1453, a mosque 1453-1931, & is now a museum.

Hagia Sophia has huge buttresses to support the dome and add-on buildings all around.  It was the largest cathedral for nearly 1,000 years.

Marble floor in the part of the nave where Eastern Roman emperors were crowned. Reminded me of Westminster Abbey’s C13th Italian marble Cosmati pavement.

Now that Hagia Sophia is a museum, people wander around on foot, their voices absorbed by the huge space, much like it must have sounded in the C6th.

Modest taps, ornate water tank.

A churchwarden’s nightmare – loose tiles.  Or, in this case, broken marble, on the floor of Hagia Sophia’s gallery.  They make a tinkling noise when you step on them.

Turkey’s hero founder Ataturk on the door of a music shop.

Fake US dollar and Euro notes for sale in the market, next to the honey sticks.

Ashkenazi synagogue in the Pera area.

Neve Shalom Synagogue, near the Galata Tower. When asking directions on the street, I met its organist (we spoke in French).  I heard people in cafés speaking a mix of Turkish, French & English.  In Damascus & Cairo I’ve heard a mix of Arabic, French & English.

A sure sign that you’re heading east – slim prayer candles in sand rather than tealights or short candles on a stand. These were at the Anglican church. Acapella choir & a warm welcome from the priest and congregation.

Marble basin and brass taps in a cake & pastry café.

Street musicians – soft singing, balophon & drums.

Studying in the women’s part of the Suleymaniye Mosque.

I got talking to these two gentlemen from Karachi, Pakistan, who were also visiting Hagia Sophia.

Underground water tank built by Emperor Justinian in the C6th.  James Bond visited in From Russia With Love.

Unusually active & muscular Christ, tugging Adam and (especially) Eve out of their graves.  Fresco in a stunning Byzantine church (now a museum) in Chora, Istanbul. (The uplighting casts a shadow.)

Stainless steel tap, plastic bucket, but magnificent street fountain.

Wah-wah packaging in a music shop.  Ouds hanging in the background.

Taps for washing at the Iskele Camii.

Fridge magnets.  Mullah Nasruddin, riding his donkey backwards – lots of good stories about this wise fool.  Also Phil Simpson’s twitter name.

Samovar in a lokanta (swift service lunchtime restaurant) on the Asian side of Istanbul. Hot, gloopy, rose-scented salep was also served from samovars on the street at night. Reminded me of the samovars in Iran.