Turkyie and Greece - April 21, 2026
April 21, 2026 Today started like nearly every other vacation day. We woke up, got dressed, and had breakfast. Afterward we headed out for another tour of the city. On the way to the Blue Mosque we stopped in the area that used to be a Roman hippodrome, the horse racing arena (think Ben Hur). You could still tell where the track was located. The grandstands of course are long gone and have been replaced by buildings, but you still got a sense of their location and the sheer size of the arena. Still located in the hippodrome area were a couple of original columns. One was Roman and was built with blocks. The other was Egyptian and was made of one large limestone column. You could even tell where the original ground level was. Over time the ground level has risen or filled in. There is an interesting story regarding the Egyptian column. It was originally thirty meters tall but the largest ship of the day that could transport the column...