Wooden Houses, Ruined and Restored

While the mosques of the Ottoman era are permanent and obvious landmarks throughout the city, much of the empire's legacy was far more ephemeral.

Orhan Pamuk, in his autobiographical "Istanbul," writes of watching repeatedly during his childhood as wooden Ottoman-era houses went up in flames.

While he made it sound as if by now there would have been none left, in fact you can still see the wrecks of those distinctive buildings throughout the city:







In fact, in a few places they've even begun to restore them:


We didn't get to go inside one, but I wish we had had the chance.