Wednesday, June 8, 2011

U is for Urban Decay.

Visitors to Sultanahmet, the historical district of İstanbul flock to see sights such as The Blue Mosque,

 Hagia Sofya

 Topkapı Palace.


and the Yerebatan Cistern


While many of the historical konaks - houses- have been renovated and turned into boutique hotels, an early morning walk  through the back streets showed that many of the houses are falling into rack and ruin.








This boutique hotel is next door to the building in the next photograph.



ABC Wednesday

24 comments:

  1. how very UNFORTUNATE. lovely town, too.
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  2. It's sad to see once grand buildings in decay.

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  3. I really agree...it is sad to see such marvelous building let go to decay.

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  4. Great photo ops of a very sad situation. I hate to see lovely cities falling into decay.

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  5. It looks as though the city is dying...sad.
    Jane x

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  6. The city is actually growing. It is so large now it takes 4 hours to get from one side of it to the other. The population is approximately 15 million, with more people arriving every day. There is talk of splitting it into two separate cities for administrative purposes. It is just some buildings in the old city that have fallen into decay.

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  7. Those pictures are amazing!! I'm really loving traveling vicariously though your blog to all the places I would love to go see. :)

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  8. I don't like the look of the decaying building, but I think we find it everywhere now a days. I glad the city is growing and the first pictures were lovely.

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  9. Great shots and you captured the contrast between the beautifully maintained and restored as well as the decaying and abandoned.

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  10. How interesting! I havent been in Turkey and couldn't imagine that the houses looked like this. Wooden houses!
    Thanks for sharing!

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  11. What a pity such unique buildings are falling into decay.

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  12. Beautiful shots! Wow! I really need to leave my neighborhood more often (though this is a tad too far away).

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  13. These houses are not even fit to be used as stables. You are right to show these contrasts of luxurious villas next to examples of grinding poverty. It's a shame. The images are very good!

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  14. WOW that was some tour! Fascinating and beautiful. The crooked house was actually cool - sad, but cool.

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  15. @Meryl. The crooked house is my favourite. It is like something from a fairytale.

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  16. Such beautiful building that became wasted. Beautiful captures though.

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  17. The modernization and negligence of heritage. Wonderful take.

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  18. Your post came on purpose ! I am going next wednesday to Istambul for 10 days for a city trip. I had been there 3 years ago but only for a day and thought it was not enough.
    Very interesting for me to see the other side from the glorious tourist centers !

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  19. @Gattina have a great trip. Istanbul is a wonderful city. I love the time I spend there.

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  20. I love your contrast of shots - they are good - it is such a shame that part of the city is so delapidated - perhaps in time it will be restored -

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  21. So sad when buildings are allowed to decay - and no one will rehab them unless they will be able to make lots of money off the enterprise. The initial shots were breathtaking, by the way. Thanks, Amy

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  22. Thanks for visiting. You heard of the helicopter song? I just found out about it and it is Irish.

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  23. Ann, hadn't heard the helicopter song until now. But I googled it after your comment:-)

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