Capital of an Empire - Edirne

Its surprising but the weather is still exceptionally good for this time of the year. I have tons of stuff to do at home but when we see the sunny weather in the morning, we are rushing outside thinking that this might be the last hot day before the winter really starts. However this goes on like this for the last 2 weeks. Believe it or not but I am praying for some cold and gray weathers to finish my many projects at home. So thats why these Edirne photos are a bit late..

Edirne is the western most city of Turkey which has a border with Greece and Bulgaria. Its only 2 hours away from İstanbul so ideal for a daytrip from here as well as from Balkan countries. It served as the capital city of Ottoman Empire before the conquest of İstanbul, so lots of Ottoman buildings to see...

Before noon we visited the covered Bazaars of the city and did some shopping like the beautiful fruit shaped soaps, I put on my previous post, but I was mostly interested with the classic details of the Bazaars built by Ottomans. This one is dated from 1418..

Main street of the city is an excellent place to have a cup of coffee and to observe the people as well as the wonderful old houses..Even Hera enjoyed the history and the crowd..

 For lunch there is only one choice in Edirne. Its famous fried liver served with fried dried hot pepper and a simple onion salad. It was delicious.

After lunch we put Hera to car so that she could have her precious afternoon sleep and we went to see the jewel of the city: The Selimiye Mosque which is considered the zenith of the Ottoman Architecture. Built in 1575, it had the largest dome in the world for several centuries..An amazing building and a piece of art..

After the magnificent Selimiye, I made a short stop at the oldest mosque of the city. Contrary to the colorful and precious ceramics of the Selimiye, walls of the old masque were decorated with striking caligraphy. It was dated from 1414..

While the night was getting closer, the waters of the Maritsa river was flowing smoothly and Greece is just on the other side of the river.. Unfortunately this beautiful photo is not taken by me, due to the dark. I took it from wikipedia travel..