Topkapı Palace
Following the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, Topkapı was transformed into a museum by a government decree dated April 3, 1924. The Topkapı Palace Museum is administered by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, but only the most important are accessible to the public today, including the Ottoman imperial harem and the treasury, called "hazine" where the Spoonmaker's Diamond and Topkapi Dagger are on display. The museum collection also includes Ottoman clothing, weapons, armor, miniatures, religious relics, and illuminated manuscripts like the Topkapi manuscript. The complex is guarded by officials of the ministry as well as armed guards of the Turkish military. Topkapı Palace is part the Historic Areas of Istanbul, a group of sites in Istanbul that were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.
Topkapı Palace
The Apartments of the Queen Mother ("Valide Sultan Dairesi"), together with the apartments of the sultan, form the largest and most important section in the harem. It was constructed after the Queen Mother moved into the Topkapı Palace in the late 16th century from the Old Palace ("Eski Saray"), but had to be rebuilt after the fire of 1665 between 1666-1668. Some rooms, such as the small music room, have been added to this section in the 18th century.
Only two of these rooms are open to the public: the dining room with, in the upper gallery, the reception room and her bedroom with, behind a lattice work, a small room for prayer. On the lower stories of the apartments are the quarters of the concubines, while the upper story rooms are those of the Queen Mother and her ladies-in-waiting ("kalfas"). The apartments of the Queen Mother are connected by a passage, leading into the Queen Mother's bathroom, to the quarters of the sultan.