# 3 Dolmabahçe Palace

 A view of the gardens with the palace in the background

(right at the tail end of the tulip season)

The Dolmabahçe Palace is the newer of the Sulans' residences. It was built to be much more in the style of the Western Palaces at the time, like Versailles. It is huge and beautiful, and extremely ornate. 

It has an absolutely incredible spot right on the Bosphorus with terrific views, 

amazing staircases and GINORMOUS chandeliers! 

And what would a Turkish palace be without some of the largest 

and most beautiful Turkish rugs adorning the whole thing?! 

Giant Hereke rugs are everywhere!

They don't allow photos inside, so I'll give you a sampling of how beautiful it is on the outside.

This building of this palace is largely credited with the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. 

I can see why. I'm sure it cost a pretty penny to construct!

This fountain is so beautiful

It is hard to get a "far away" shot of how big this is-because it is enclosed by a large wall on one side and the water on the other- so this is just a shot of one corner

The Imperial Gate

 Just a reminder of why I love Turkey-

This is me chillin on a nice cushioned bench up under the shade right by the start of the line with Miles. 

Everyone else was standing in the hot sun winding down the stairs and into the garden. The guards saw me with the baby though and immediately had me come up to sit and relax in the shade until the rest of our party got to the front. Nice! I am really going to miss all of the "Baby Perks" I get here! 

Turkey is SO awesome that way.

A different side view-tried to get more of the entire scope of it

We never took the other boys here (incase you are wondering why they are not in the pictures)

You must get a scheduled guided tour for this palace, and it seemed like more effort than it was worth to bring them along and keep them well behaved. 

A pretty awesome statue in the gardens-

who doesn't love a lion squishing a croc?

Us on the back stairway-with a fantastic view of the water in the background

This was such a close battle for my favorite building in Istanbul.

What can I say though-it reminded me too much of Versailles…

and it's no secret how much I love that place. 

A terrific experience, well worth doing-but just need to plan ahead to make sure you can get the tour scheduled at a time you want. We wish we had been able to take even more of our guests to see it-

but again, next time we'll be much better planners!