"Topkapi Palace in Istanbul: What really went on in the harem?
Nick Trend
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Last Updated: 12:30PM BST 20/06/2008
At the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Nick Trend finds it hard to distinguish fact from erotic fantasy about life inside.
"This,” said the guide who was taking us around the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, “is the Courtyard of the Concubines.” We blinked at the sunlight and surveyed the row of windows closed off with tight-slatted wooden shutters. We were right in the heart of the building from which successive sultans had ruled the Ottoman Empire for 400 years - from Mehmet II’s sacking of the city, then called Constantinople, in 1453, until the mid-19th century. "
More:Topkapi Palace in Istanbul: What really went on in the harem? - Telegraph