Through the Outer Gardens of the Saray - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 100

the Golden Horn in times of siege. There is also an exhibition of
coins from ancient Byzantium and Byzantine Constantinople.
The exhibit on Anatolia and Troy Through the Ages is arranged
chronologically, with the various levels in the archaeological site at
Troy on one side of the room, ranging from Troy I (3000-2500 B.C.)
to Troy IX (250 B.C.-A.D. 400), while on the other side are exhibits
from other archaeological sites in Anatolia ranging from the earliest
prehistoric periods up to the archaic age.
The exhibit on the Cultures of Anatolia's Neighbours is dedicated
to ancient Syria, Palestine and Cyprus. The most striking exhibit is a
recreated hypogeum, or subterranean tomb, from ancient Palmyra in
Syria, dated A.D. 108. The sculptural portraits in the hypogeum are
originals, taken from a number of funerary monuments in Palymyra's
Valley of the Tombs.
In leaving the new annexe we pass through a room on the second
floor of the old museum. The glass cases here contain votive figurines
of the classical and Hellenistic periods. In the centre of the room is
a colossal bronze statue of the emperor Hadrian from Nicomedeia,
dated mid-second century A.D. From the window there is a good
view of Çinili Köşk, the next stop on our itinerary.
ÇİNİLİ KÖŞK
We now leave the Archaeological Museum and cross over to Çinili
Köşk, the Tiled Pavilion. This is the oldest Ottoman secular building
in Istanbul, built by Sultan Mehmet II in 1472 as an outer pavilion
of Topkapı Sarayı. It is Persian in design and decoration, a derivation
which is emphasized by its long and beautifully written Persian
inscription giving the date of construction. In front of the building
before the museum was built, there was a large jirit field (jirit was a
kind of polo game much favoured by the pages of the Saray), and
Çinili Köşk seems to have been built as a kind of viewing pavilion.
It is in two storeys, almost identical in plan, that is to say, cruciform,
with chambers in the corners of the cross. It has a deeply recessed
entrance alcove on the main floor, entirely revetted in tiles of various
kinds, most of them tile mosaic in turquoise and dark blue. On the
back wall these form simple geometric designs, but in the deep soffit