I’m so sorry for not updating in a while, my mind has drifted away and forgotten to do this!
Dolma: filled-up, stuffed; and bahçe meaning garden.
It is located in Istanbul, on the European coastline of the Bosphorus strait, near Taxim. It served as the main administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 to 1922.
It took 13 years to built the palace (between 1843 and 1856), and cost five million Ottoman gold pounds (the equivalent of 35 tons of gold). Sultan Abdülmecit I, the 31st sultan of the Ottoman Empire, commissioned the construction.
It is said that 40 tons of silver and 14 tons of gold were used for the decoration of
the palace. In fact, the palace’s gilded ceilings feature gold leaf details; they used 14 tons of gold leaf for that alone.
This is the largest palace in Turkey, with 285 rooms, 46 halls, 6 Turkish baths, 68 toilets and 1427 windows.
This was the main “front” entrance to the palace grounds.
The fees to get in. We only went to the “official part,” because Süleyman believed that the family house was boring (and too expensive). We both used our student IDs, only 5 Lira. Really, it would have been about $20 to enter the entire palace, and it only cost us about $2.50.
The absolutely massive front doors. The palace grounds were so big, I’m sure you could sneak in and no one would find you for months… that is, if they had no security.
The “side gate,” equally as beautiful as the front or anything else here.
Suleyman and me at the side gate.
This is the main, “official” building that we got to tour. It was breathtakingly beautiful inside and out, the walkway was lined with flowers and behind me, there was a beautiful fountain.
When we entered, we could only go through with a tour guide. They had walking tours with English and Turkish speakers about every 15-20 minutes, so it wasn’t long of a wait.
Unfortunately ours happened to be extremely annoying. He said, “If you were royalty you could (do this), but you’re not” over and over again. That was pretty much all he was telling us. He didn’t really mention much about importance of certain objects or answer anyone’s questions clearly. He really was a terrible tour guide. Süleyman had been there before and tried remembering certain details, but only mentioned that the fireplace was important and this was important. So, alas, no fun histories, only what I found online.
I guess this was because we were in a very old palace and had to preserve it, but we had to wear these plastic footies over our shoes. TIP, it’s slippery. They put carpet down, you know to preserve it, but I guess it wasn’t enough, so footies it is.
Well, one of those things we weren’t allowed to do was take pictures inside, and Süleyman, being super hardcore BA, took pictures anyway, so enjoy these awkward angled, somewhat blurry pictures.
this was the ceiling in one of the first rooms in the palace. And this is just one of the many intricate designs on the ceilings.
Some beautiful chandeliers, and the carpet, complete with ropes, to make sure no one was going off track. (Follow the red carpet road, follow the red carpet road…)
Seating.
Some beautiful mirrors, and a hand-made Turkish rug, of course.
Oh look the footies! This is the grand crystal staircase.
(Picture credit: http://citylifepicture.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/crystal-staircase/) Made into a “double horseshoe” and is made from Baccarat crystal, brass and mahogany, one of the key places you’ll want to see in the palace.
The ivory and silver candelabra, incense holder, standing in front of the door, was a gift of Ahmed Ratib Pasha, the governor of the Hejaz in Saudi Arabia, to Sultan Abdulhamid II.
More details on the ceiling. (P.S. that’s super-blurry me on the right)
A bear skin that I have to assume is hundreds of years old. A website I found said that there were bearskin rugs given as a gift from the Tsar of Russia.
A gasp-worthy porcelain vase. And look at that beautiful wood floor?
The library.
And more ceilings.
Now this was the crème de la crème. The main room. The grand Ceremonial Hall where rulers of countries would come together and chat with some tea (I’m assuming). It was a gift from Queen Victoria of Britain, to the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s. It is so gorgeous it was hard to take my eyes off of it and leave the palace.
Our tour guide claimed this chandelier second heaviest chandelier in the world (the first is in Qatar). But online, I found it at#5. I know it’s not that impressive, but stick with me. It weighs 4.5 tons (that’s 9,000 pounds, or 4082 kilograms) and has 750 lamps on it, not to mention the weight it bears on your chest as you look at its immense beauty.
(Picture credit: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/twiga_swala/tags/hall/) During the years 1910 – 1912 Dolmabahçe Palace received its central heating and electrical systems. This picture is very hard to see (I’m sorry!), the groups of column have a metal grate where they meet the floor. (The columns to the left of the chandelier have a brown stripe near the floor then a more tan stripe, and the tan stripe is what I’m talking about.) Suleyman told me about this when we were leaving, the tour guide failed to do so. The heat was under the floor and heat rises, so it would go out the vents and heat the whole room. Similar rooms were built like this.
The domed ceiling of the Ceremony Hall. This was the last stop in our short tour; it was about 25 minutes long.
Suleyman and me after our tour.
Can you find me in all that marble?
One of the many Bosphorus entrances.
In the garden were roaming peacocks and cats (per usual), but also a weird bird we couldn’t identify and more livestock-type birds.
I met this homeless cat (with no name), and immediately fell in love. I won’t bore you with the details, but this is by far my favorite cat on earth. I was so sad to leave him there.
We also went into the “Dolmabahçe sarayı camlı köşk” (Dolmabahçe palace glass pavilion). Here is the gorgeous metal work on the stairs.
Each of these figures were candle holders or lamps, and were peacocks. They were very beautiful.
Süleyman told me that the sultans would come up to the glass pavilion and watch his people, he would feel closer to them when he did. Unfortunately, many people forget about this building, and it was very difficult to find information about it online, let alone pictures.
Because it’s out of the way when you’re about to leave the palace (as you leave, it’s on your right), many people skip over it. I believe there was an extra fee to get in, but I’m not sure how much. But it was quite a gem. The inside (as you’ll see soon), was very beautifully decorated and Süleyman could not sneak another picture of the ceiling, which of course was beautiful. There were intricate paintings of lions near the ceiling, as lions are the kings.
The vast room (and the security guard).
Inside the entrance hall.
We got on a bus nearby as we left and got to see the famous room from the window. This was the best shot I could get.
(Photo credit: http://georarchy.com/Detail/22280) This is a much better, (non-roped-off) more clear picture, just to show how beautiful it was inside.
(Photo credit: http://wikimapia.org/20467487/tr/Caml%C4%B1-K%C3%B6%C5%9Fk) Here’s a professional picture I found online. This was taken from inside the palace grounds, near the bird houses.
The clock tower. We went to this clock tower when I was in Turkey in January, and Süleyman kept calling it the watch tower. Now this is after we had been to Galata Tower, another watch tower. He was so confused when I asked him if they spotted many fires from this “watch” tower. He had compared watch to the watch on your wrist…or a clock. We straightened it out eventually.
Dolmabahce Clock Tower is a clock tower situated outside Dolmabahce Palace. The tower was constructed by the architect Sarkis Balyan between 1890 and 1895 with the order of Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II. The four-story tower stands at a height of 89 feet (or 27 meters).
Dolmabahce Palace has a great meaning for Turkish people since the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, had used the palace as a residence and spent the most serious period of his illness there. He passed away in this palace on November 10, 1938 at 9:05 AM, all the clocks in the palace are stopped at this time. At 9:05 on November 10th every year, for the entire minute, people honk their horns, bang their pots, make noise, etc. to pay homage to their great founder.
Sources for information:
http://www.dolmabahcepalace.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmabah%C3%A7e_Palace
abroadwithliz2 
Beth, what a gorgeous palace! Thank you again for all the notes.