Φωτογραφίες

Hi TE friends,
This is a picture from a Balat street, where almost all houses are like ruins and old..

Balat is an old district of Istanbul where people with different religions used to live peacefully.. Today Balat is a working-class district on the shores of the Golden Horn.

Jews were settled after their expulsion from Spain, enlarging a community, which had lived here since Byzantine times..

Though it once had as many as nineteen synagogues, only two of importance remain, the famous Ahrida, and the neighboring Yanbol.. The site of a Jewish school is close by, and Or Ahayim Jewish Hospital is within walking distance..

Also in this district are the cast-iron Bulgarian Orthodox church of St. Stephen of the Bulgars, the Kariye Museum (Chora Church with Byzantine mosaics), the massive city walls, and the ruins of the Byzantine palace known as Tekfur Saray..