Various Sections of the Museum of Topkapi Palace (Sarayi): Interior Architecture

The exterior and interior sections from the Topkapi Palace buildings are presented in this page. Most of the photos depict valuable tiles and wall paintings. The exact places of the buildings within the palace can be found at the floor plan of Topkapi Palace.
The Sadirvanli Taslik. The marble used for the door- and window-frames is from the quarries of the Proconnessos on the island of Marmara which in Antiquity provided practically all the grey and white marble used in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Meskhane gate, going down to the palace music room.
The Karaagalar Kogusu (Black Eunuchs' barracks): portico. The tile inscriptions are Koranic.
The Kadiefendis' sitting room, showing the low platform below the windows as it would originally have been, upholstered with cushions and bolsters.
The Kadiefendis' sitting room, fireplace, detail of chimney-piece.
The Valide Sultan's apartments, one of the principal reception rooms with an upper tier of windows and panels of landscapes and seascapes in Westernizing style, with Baroque or Rococo painted swangs, rincaeux and architectural motifs in trompe l'oeil.
The Valide Sultan's bed chamber, with seventeenth century tile panels and gilt wooden canopy.
The Hunkar Sofasi (Throne Room): probably built by Sinan for Murad II (1574-95), but was radically redecorated and altered in the reign of Osman III (1754-7). The scene shows the apex of the arches, the supporting side vaults and the tips of the pendentives.
The Hunkar Sofasi (Throne Room), viewed from the sitting area for the Harem ladies, showing the tall mirrors set between Neo-Classical pilasters.
The Has Oda (Privy Chamber) of Murad III (1574-95), showing the painted dome on the pendentives and an upper tier of windows of coloured glass. The windows are double glazed for the Istanbul winter.
The dining room of Ahmed III, showing the painted stucco fireplace and chimney-piece, with windows to either side in embrasures overlooking the courtyard of Osman III.
The Princes' apartments: the second hall, showing the upper windows of coloured glass with tile panels between, and a blue and white Koranic tile frieze below them.
The Princes' apartments or Cifte Kasirlar, viewed from the Gozdeler Tasligi (Favourites' Courtyard) looking towards the Golden Horn.
The Gozdeler Tasligi (Favourites' Courtyard), with the favourites' quarters to the right, above the portico.
Detail of one of the tile panels displayed on the Altin Yol; like the panel
The Hirka-i Saadet apartments, interior view. The tile panels are mostly seventeenth century.
The entrance to the Hirka-i Saadet apartments viewed from the Terrace of Sultan Ibrahim (1640-8).
The Revan Kosk, erected in 1045/1635-6 to commemorate Murad IV's victorious campaign in Transcaucasia, was otherwise known as the Sarik Odasi (Turban Room).
The Baghdad Kosk, built in 1048/1638-9 to commemorate Murad IV's re-conquest of Baghdad, viewed across the terrace of Sultan Ibrahim (1640-8), with the Iftariye (Breakfast Arbour), built by him soon after his accession, where he would break the fast in Ramadan - when the weather was good.
The Baghdad Kosk: the portico, showing marble paneling in Cairene Mamluk style.
The Baghdad Kosk; interior, showing the inlaid and encrusted cupboards and window-shutters and the all over tile-work of the upper walls, the pendentives and the soffits of the arches.
The Baghdad kosk: (left) detail of a seventeenth-century tile panel (one of the finest in the building), copying the prototype on the Sunnet Odasi of Sultan Ibrahim; (right) earlier cuerda seca tiles lining the wall-niches, the decorative wooden frame of which is inlaid with ivory, tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl.

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