The Ottoman Bank and other learning experiences

We spent a weekend in Istanbul and saw a number of interesting exhibitions. (find a list of Istanbul museums here)

Foremost, perhaps, was the Museum of the Ottoman Bank, located in their old Karaköy building. The vaults gave very interesting insights on social and economic issues during the last decades before the First World War, including photos and files on all their diverse staff in cities across the empire. Fascinating!

They also gave a special exhibition on symbols and aestethics in European nation-building in the 20's and 30's - comparing France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Soviet Russia and Turkey - which was quite striking. I can't find a web presence for it though, but will add it for you later if I do.

We also saw the Gengiz Han-exhibition on Mongol-Turkish history at the Sabanci Museum, in it's beautiful Bosphorus kösk. The Mongols in history have always been rather obscure to me, but is here illustrated well and as a coherent whole (even if I find some Asian religious imagery difficult to understand and digest).