The article 'Uncover the secrets of Topkapi Palace' was published in partnership with Lonely Planet.

BBC: Uncover the secrets of Topkapi Palace

And at the Topkapi Palace, surely the chefs rose above kebabs and mezes to keep the sultan well fed?

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"Uncover the secrets of Topkapi Palace" is her tour of the city's famous and infamous royal residence and harem.

BBC: This is Istanbul week

The same security is in place at the Topkapi Palace, the jewel in the city's crown and its top tourist attraction.

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Other Biennial-related highlights include Bertrand Ivanoff's neon installations on the old Orthodox Palestinian Christian Church and Johan Tahon's milky ceramic figures set in a 15th-century tiled kiosk in walls of the Topkapi Palace.

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But the hapless pasha was decapitated, his severed head being duly placed in a gourd full of honey and exposed at the Topkapi palace in Istanbul, after he was implicated in a plot to overthrow the sultan.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne