Kanishk Tharoor on Absorbing the Antiquityof the Turkish Capital
Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque rises as if from a height. Its hulking tiered domes overlook the water and its minarets carve out the sky.
When Kanishk Tharoor entered its spacious, sunlit interior as a 22-year-old on his first visit to Turkey, it felt transcendent. He had visited the Taj Mahal before, but this mosque, more famously called the Blue Mosque, seemed to stir in him an unprecedented reaction. “I feel like I’m fairly well travelled and have been to all sorts of places but it remains the most beautiful building I have ever entered in my life,” he says, 10 years later, on the phone from New York. “I’m not particularly religious myself but I can understand why people find the sacred within such an enormous exquisite space… I suppose I had an aesthetically religious experience.”
The 33-year-old writer and broadcaster, whose debut collection Swimmer Among The Stars: Stories was published last year, speaks in a giddy state of rapture while mapping the contours of his time in Istanbul. For years before his trip he had read the books and soaked up the history. When he actually went there it buzzed with the frisson of the new whilst meshing with the comfort of the familiar. “I was just geeking out the entire time,” he says. “Everywhere I went I was finding references to things I’d read or references to things I’d studied or written about. Before I came to Istanbul I felt like I had lived the city on the page. And then to be there in real life was just amazing.”
Denne historien er fra October 2017-utgaven av National Geographic Traveller India.
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Denne historien er fra October 2017-utgaven av National Geographic Traveller India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Best Of The World 2023
Travel inspiration is everywhere. The question is where to go next. Here's our annual list of enlightened destinations for the year aheadplaces filled with wonder, rewarding to travellers of all ages, and supportive of local communities and ecosystems. Framed by five categories (Community, Nature, Culture, Family, Adventure), these destinations are under the radar, ahead of the curve, and ready for you to start exploring.
Α ΗΟΜΕ IN THE HILLS
Skyview by Empyrean is a onestop destination for adventure and leisure in Jammu
ENTER THE PICTURE POSTCARD
A stylish luxury hotel in Thimphu's northern outskirts is where illustrious Bhutanese and travellers alike are finding their happy place
48 Hours : Seattle Leads The Way
The jewel of the Pacific Northwest is one of America’s greenest and grooviest culture capitals
BIG BINGE: DUBAI FOR THE JET-SETTING GOURMAND
Delightful degustation menus, French brasseries with art-inspired menus and Japanese diners excelling at nostalgia—the Dubai Food Festival 2022 justified the city’s status as one of the world’s premier food capitals
CULTURE COOL - UNDER THE EMIRATI SUN
Home to one of the world’s grandest mosques, an exciting emerging arts district on Saadiyat Island and an entertainment hub promising genuine thrills, Abu Dhabi has arrived in the league of extraordinary family destinations
ONLY IN OTTAWA
ACTIVE ADVENTURES, BUZZY BREWERIES AND NEIGHBOURHOODS THRIVING WITH BARS AND BOUTIQUES— CANADA'S BIJOU CAPITAL HAS PLENTY TO DISCOVER BEYOND THE HALLS OF PARLIAMENT
OF FRENCH FINESSE
QUENELLE DE BROCHET IS A REGIONAL LEGACY DISH HAILING FROM LYON. THE OVAL, POACHED PIKE DUMPLINGS ARE BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN INVENTED BY A PASTRY CHEF TO REGULATE FISH OVERPOPULATION
Coorg: A WILD ROAST
Back in another timber den of Karnataka, native wildlife and humble stories surprise Suhas Dwarkanath as he sips on a bold cup of robusta.
DIVING INTO RAS AL KHAIMAH
THE U.A.E'S NORTHERNMOST EMIRATE IS ALL ABOUT ENJOYING NATURAL TREASURES, FROM SOARING OVER THE AL-HAJAR MOUNTAINS ON THE WORLD'S LONGEST ZIPLINE TO PERUSING PRECIOUS PEARLS BY THE SEASHORE