One of the many spectacular domes in the Harem.
I had a lot of nicknames in high school:
Aram Scare ’em.
A-ram.
Sogs (my last name is Sohigian so it sounds about the same)
and, in no way connected to my horrible dating prowess, Aram’s Harem.
I actually visited a real harem and, trust me, it was nothing like my room.
The Topkapi Palace Harem is amazing.
It takes about 1 hour to walk through it and we could have spent a whole day in it.
The harem is inside the Topkapi Palace but needs its own blog entries because it is so magical and different.
The harem has over 400 rooms in it and seems like a maze that we could have followed for days.
The harem, back in the day, had around between 600-1000 eunuchs there (yes, they had been castrated and therefore couldn’t do anything) and many concubines.
All of the eunuchs and concubines were slaves and had no choice in their being included in this type of service.
The Queen Mother and the Sultan basically had total control and were able to do whatever they wanted.
I’m not so sure I would have liked to live in those times, since there seemed to be very little freedom, especially if you were a slave, but the buildings they made, and the amazing architecture, is truly impressive.