There was much squeeing involved.

kshandra and I have been enjoying The Protector on Netflix. It's a fun fantasy set in modern Istanbul with a young man learning that he is the Protector, and invulnerable when he dons a special talismanic shirt. He exists to stop the last Immortal, who for poorly explained reasons, wished to destroy the Queen of Cities, and eventually, all of humanity.

Along with playing a good game of making us guess who the Immortal is, we are really enjoying seeing Istanbul in 4K beauty. But in the last episode, we watched we had an extra reason to bounce in glee. Along with the shirt, the Protector has two weapons to help him stop the Immortal; a ring that can detect the Immortal, and a dagger that can kill him (or her.)

Problem is these items have been hidden by the Loyal Ones, the usual secret society dedicated to supporting the Protector - when one is needed - and hiding the three magic items from the Immortal. The characters had found the ring, but it was missing its stone. Which led them to . . .

The tomb of Mimar Sinan. Which was one of the places I was determined to see on our trip. Sinan was born in what is now Romania, taken as a child from Christian parents, converted to Islam, and became a Janissary, one of the elite troops of the Sultan. Because he was brilliant, he was sent to schools where he became both a military engineer and an architect. Sinan invented Ottoman architecture. He planned dozens of mosques, palaces, and forts, and was Sulieman's right-hand man. When he died, he was buried in a small family tomb just outside the walls of one of his masterpieces, the Süleymaniye Mosque.

It's really amazing, his tomb is just on a street corner, next to a line of shops. But when two of the main characters visited it, we both were going "We stood right there! OMG, that's the grate I looked through!" and so on. We need to go back. If only to look for the fake fountain faucet we saw in the show.

Here's one of my pictures of the tomb.