... and decorated with 14 tons of gold. That's what I remember about Dolmabahçe Palace. So much gilt and so many chandeliers! (the largest collection of Bacharat and Bohemian crystal chandeliers in the world!) And the biggest one, a gift from Queen Victoria, was constructed of 4.5 tons of Bohemian crystal and had 750 lamps. Personally, I found it rather a monstrosity and would be scared to stand under it, but not so this smaller one (pictured) found in the Dolmabahçe Mosque located nearby. I took this photo lying directly beneath the chandelier there. The only other thing that struck me on my visit to Dolmabahçe was the room in which Atatürk died. The bed was covered with a bright red bedspread stiched to resemble the Turkish flag.
And this view is from the garden. I was a little interested to see the gaden since "garden" is part of the name of the palace. "Bahçe" means garden and "dolma" is a form of food in which vegetables or vine leaves are stuffed with rice, etc. But as it turns out, there was no vegetables in the garden, "dolma" means stuffed and in fact, the garden is stuffed only in the sense that the palace (the first European style palace in Turkey) was built on reclaimed land. The best part of the garden is not pictured: the aviary filled with exotic chickens, swans, guinea fowl and peafowl.
... and decorated with 14 tons of gold. That's what I remember about Dolmabahçe Palace. So much gilt and so many chandeliers! (the largest collection of Bacharat and Bohemian crystal chandeliers in the world!) And the biggest one, a gift from Queen Victoria, was constructed of 4.5 tons of Bohemian crystal and had 750 lamps. Personally, I found it rather a monstrosity and would be scared to stand under it, but not so this smaller one (pictured) found in the Dolmabahçe Mosque located nearby. I took this photo lying directly beneath the chandelier there. The only other thing that struck me on my visit to Dolmabahçe was the room in which Atatürk died. The bed was covered with a bright red bedspread stiched to resemble the Turkish flag. 
And this view is from the garden. I was a little interested to see the gaden since "garden" is part of the name of the palace. "Bahçe" means garden and "dolma" is a form of food in which vegetables or vine leaves are stuffed with rice, etc. But as it turns out, there was no vegetables in the garden, "dolma" means stuffed and in fact, the garden is stuffed only in the sense that the palace (the first European style palace in Turkey) was built on reclaimed land. The best part of the garden is not pictured: the aviary filled with exotic chickens, swans, guinea fowl and peafowl.
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