Beyazid 600 meters far from Orka Royal Hotel. After leaving Fatih mosque, I headed off back towards the Beyazit area, intending to head home to the hotel, but curiosity intervened.

I went up the steps near Istanbul University, curious about the people peddling knives, watches and bric-a-brac. Close to them many people were selling books, mostly computer software manuals translated into Turkish, and I think, a look of bootleg software (bad luck Bill!).

A bit further on, in the plaza out the front of the University, and next to the Beyazid mosque, was the biggest open-air market I have ever seen. Clothes, cutlery, you name it - on sale from people who looked like they had come from all over Turkey and Central Asia. The market appeared to spread for hundreds of metres, and I wondered if it was legal. I heard back at the hotel that the police moved in every now and again to clear things up, and sure enough, I saw a van. They made sure the siren and walkie talkies went off every now and again, just to make their presence felt.

It was getting near dusk, and dirty great rain clouds were rearing up overhead, right behind the resplendent Ottoman gates of Istanbul University. I headed for the Beyazide mosque and took shelter in the marble courtyard. Unfortunately, I was unable to enter the mosque as it was closed to non-Muslims at the time. With the pitter-pat of rain on the marble, sheltered under the enormous porches on all sides, in the failing, stormy light, were groups of people. It would have made a great photo for a professional photographer.

"The mosque was built right at the start of the 16th century, part of a whole complex with the medrese, schools, kitchen etc. Freely says in his book "the mosque marks the beginning of the great classical period which continued for more than two hundred years." There you go! And even more technical - but an accurate description of the beautiful courtyard: "One enters Beyasit Camii through one of the most charming of all the mosque courtyards. A peristyle of twenty ancient columns - porphyry, verd antique, and Syenitic granite - upholds an arcade with red-and-white or black-and-white marble voussoirs. The colonnade is roofed with 24 small domes and three magnificent entrance portals give access to it....The harmony of proportions, the rich but restrained decoration, the brilliance of the variegated marbles, not to speak of the interesting vendors and crowds which always through it, give this courtyard a charm of its own."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Look out in particular for the Arabic or Ottoman dedictory inscriptions in black on red marble in the portals. They are truly masterworks. I went back there on Sunday morning, and a very quiet coin and money and watch market takes place. In the middle, of course, tea urns boil away, and people (all men, I think, bar a few LOUD American tourists), sat and talked quietly.

After a full day of finding the Chora church, wandering by foot, Schehzade, Beyazit, I came back to the hotel and collapsed.