Around the Blue Mosque - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 120

the galleries. The predominant colour is a cool turquoise, and this has
been picked up again here and there in the carpets. The whole efect
is extraordinarily harmonious. Above the entrance portal can be seen
a small specimen of the wonderful painted decoration of the classical
period. It consists of very elaborate arabesque designs in rich and
vivid colours. Also above the door, surrounded by a design in gold,
is a fragment of black stone from the holy Kaaba in Mecca; other
fragments can be seen in the mihrab and mimber, themselves fine
work in carved marble and faience.
We leave the mosque by the broad staircase below the west wall of
the courtyard (notice the fine inlaid arabesque woodwork of the great
doors), and turn left and then right onto Kadirga Liman Caddesi.
This picturesque old street soon brings us to a large open square,
much of which is now used as a playground. This is the pleasant area
known as Kadirga Limanı, which means literally the Galley Port. As
its name suggests, this was anciently a seaport, now long since silted
up and built over. The port was originally dug and put in shape by the
Emperor Julian the Apostate in 362 and called after him. In about
570, Justin II redredged and enlarged it and named it for his wife,
Sophia. It had continually to be redredged but remained in use until
after the Turkish Conquest. By about 1550, when Gyllius saw it, only
a small part of the harbour remained and now even this is gone.
Today only bits and pieces of the inner fortifications of the harbour
are left, cropping up here and there as parts of houses and garden
walls in several of the streets between here and the sea .
In the centre of the square, Kadirga Liman Meydanı, there is a
very striking and unique monument. This is the namazgah of Esma
Sultan, daughter of Ahmet III, which was built in 1779. It is a great
rectangular block of masonry, on the two faces of which are fountains
with ornamental inscriptions, the corners having ornamental niches,
while the third side is occupied by a staircase which leads to the flat
roof. This is the only surviving example in Stamboul of a namazgah,
or open-air place of prayer, in which the kıble or direction of prayer
is indicated but which is otherwise without furniture or decoration.
Namazgahs are common enough in Anatolia and the remains of
at least two others can be seen in the environs of Istanbul, one in