Turkish Protests Documented through Instagram
On May 31, three days after demonstrators set up camp in Istanbul’s Gezi Park to protest the development of a new shopping mall, police dispersed the crowd with water cannons and tear gas, setting off the most significant wave of protests in Turkey’s recent history.
Tapping into deeper cultural divisions and discontent, demonstrations have spread throughout Turkey, where protestors and bystanders alike have been documenting the skirmishes through Instagram.
View more photos from Istanbul by visiting locations pages for Gezi Park, İstiklal Caddesi and Kazancı Yokuşu. See photos from Ankara by visiting the Tunalı Hilmi Caddesi and Kuğulu Park location pages.
The World’s Most Beautiful Museums
“In poetically well built museums, formed from the heart’s compulsions, we are consoled not by finding in them old objects that we love, but by losing all sense of Time.” - Orhan Pamuk
In honor of International Museum Day, we assembled a list of our favorite museums around the world. Museums house the world’s treasures—be they artistic, scientific or historical—and in turn they are often designed to reflect or enhance the collections they host.
See more museum photos from across the Instagram community by browsing the location pages for these museums below.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York City, United States
- Museo Guggenheim - Bilbao, Spain
- The J. Paul Getty Museum - Los Angeles, United States
- State Hermitage Museum (Госуда́рственный Эрмита́ж) - St. Petersberg, Russia
- New Museum (@newmuseum) - New York City, United States
- Museum of Islamic Art - Doha, Qatar
- Jardines et Musée de Claude Monet - Giverny, France
Location Feature: The Hot Air Balloons of Cappadocia
View more photos of hot air balloons and fairy chimneys by visiting the Cappadocia location page.
In the middle of Turkey sits Cappadocia, a region defined as much by its iconic “fairy chimneys” as by its long and colorful history.
These days, visitors from around the world make the trek to this region to catch a bird’s-eye view of the unique and spectacular scenery. Each morning, 90 balloons lift more than 1,500 passengers high above the landscape, providing one of the best Instagram opportunities the world has to offer.
Instagrammers from Around the World Host Photo Walks
Last week, we challenged Instagrammers around the world to get together, take photos and share them with the hashtag #WorldwideInstaMeet on Instagram. Over the weekend, we were excited to see Instagrammers from China (#instameet_shenzhenbay) to Kenya (#NRBIGphotowalk) answer our call to action, including the following communities:
- Doha, Qatar — #seemydohawalk1
- Johannesburg, South Africa — #ig_braamies and be sure to check out their awesome video!
- Tasmania, Australia — #instatassie10
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — #instameet_heli
- Miami, United States — #instameet_miami_dt
- Paris, France — #instaprintemps
- Los Angeles, United States — #griffith_instameet
Want to host your own InstaMeet or photowalk? Be sure to check out our blog post with tips on how to organize and throw a great event.
Protecting Rome’s Ancient Architecture, with @saverome
Modern Rome is built atop a layer of ancient ruins, many of which are still standing and accessible today. Having worked in Rome as a preservationist and teacher for the last 15 years, archaeologist Darius Arya (@saverome) has a keen knowledge of the city’s rich structural history. Through Instagram, he takes followers along for an up-close, educational look at Rome’s ruins. “I love being able to reveal a lot of information on a well-known structure like the Pantheon or discuss a structure or issue in the shadow of something so well known, like the barely-known Saepta Julia resting against the Pantheon,” he says. “Instagram has helped me focus my message and deliver a variety of styles, from a simple photo to intensely dense informative material.”
In his self-proclaimed quest to make #culturalheritage cool, Darius has opened up a global dialogue about the Roman ruins on Instagram. “I find the feedback from people is great. People are learning, hungry for more. I really enjoy being able to get into the conversation and spur on interest.”
To get your daily dose of Rome’s #culturalheritage, and to follow along as Darius embarks on a 3-year excavation in Ostia Antica this June and July, be sure to follow him on Instagram @saverome!
Hashtag Highlight: #followmeto with @muradosmann and @yourleo
Russian photographer Murad Osmann (@muradosmann) and his girlfriend Nataly Zakharova (@yourleo) travel constantly for work and they’ve come up with a unique and romantic perspective for sharing their experiences around the globe on Instagram that has caught the attention of publications like the Daily Mail and the Huffington Post. The entire project actually started as an accident: “I was taking pictures of everything and Nataly got annoyed, so she dragged me forward to move on. That’s how the first #followmeto was taken, and I quite liked the result so we have continued the series ever since.” Murad started using the hashtag #followmeto to catalog photos of Nataly leading him to landmarks and exotic places.
Be sure to follow Murad (@muradosmann) and Nataly (@yourleo) on Instagram for more of their around-the-world photos and a behind-the-scenes look at how to take them yourself!
A Trip to Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya)
Originally a church, then a mosque and now a museum, the Hagia Sophia is Istanbul’s most famous monument and one of the most important religious structures on the planet.
For a millennium after its construction in the sixth century, the Hagia Sophia was the world’s largest cathedral. Its famed dome rests on an arcade of 40 arched windows and remains one of the largest in the world, standing 55 meters (182 feet) from floor level at its maximum. From Byzantine mosaics to calligraphic roundels and even scaffolding from ongoing restoration, layers of the building’s history can be viewed all at once. To get a first-person look inside the Hagia Sophia, be sure to visit the Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) location page.
