The Grand Vizier Crossing the Atmeydanı (Horse Square)

This open ground had once been the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Under the Ottomans it became the Atmeydanı, the Horse Square, and the monuments of the old racecourse still stand down its middle, the Egyptian obelisk raised by the emperor Theodosius in the 4th century, the bronze Serpent Column brought from Delphi, and a second obelisk of rough stone. On the left rises the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the only one in the city with six minarets. The long procession belongs to the grand vizier, crossing from his palace on the right to the mosque for Friday prayers. The six guards in green coats are painted a couple of heads taller than the servants around them, and two men follow with a carpet and a cushion, in case the call to prayer caught the vizier still out in the street.