For some reason this week I started to think about one of my favorite little things about Istanbul: its birdhouses. Now when I say that I don’t quite mean what you’re thinking. Don’t get me wrong, they are houses for birds to nest in, but you can forget about any image you have in your head. The birdhouses I’m thinking of are old (old enough so that the only ones I can find starting to fall apart). They are typically built high up into the wall of a mosque complex and are created to look like a true miniature house, only with round openings for the birds. I’ve been told that these were a part of earlier mosques because the believed that the birds would carry their prayers up in the sky closer to God. One thing for sure, the birds got some palatial spaces out of the belief. So excuse me if I’m wandering around with my eyes to the sky, I’m just looking for birdhouses, and I’ll never find them if I stay focused on the ground.
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