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| Subject: Topkapi Palace in Istanbul 13/11/2010, 10:47 pm | |
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The Topkapi Palace is located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is said to bethe official residence of the Ottoman Sultans and has been here fromthe past four centuries, from a period of 1465 till 1853.The palace isa major tourist attraction now a days, when it was actually a place forofficial occasion of the state and an entertainment place. The Topkapiword literally means a ‘cannon gate palace’.The construction of the palace began in the year 1459 by SultanMehmed II. The palace has four different courtyards and has a lot ofother small buildings. The palace served as the residence for almostfour thousands people. Over the years, the palace has seen manychanges, expansions and destruction due to natural calamities like theearthquake and fire. And during the 17th century, the palace was beingignored by the ultanates’ as more importance was given to the newpalaces. Only a few kind of functions were still taken place in somepart of the palace, some of them being the library, mosque, imperialtreasury etc.During the year 1924, the palace was converted into a museum and wasunder direct supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In1985, the palace belonged to the historic areas of Istanbul and becamea part of the UNESCO, World Heritage center. The palace had a lot ofrooms in it, however only a small part is available for tourist andpublic view. The palace has the Ottoman architecture all over with abig and a huge collocation of arms and weapons, miniatures, jewelry etc. | |
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