This is a photo of the Imperial Hall; built in the late 16th c. it still has some of the original decorations. At the right there is the Imperial sofa from where the sultan used to watch private receptions and entertainment. As the history of the Seraglio harem was always topic for romance and fantasy, not to mention the theme of many works of art pictorial and literary, and musical compositions, the reality of daily life in the royal harem was far from legend; it had the routine, rigors and rhythms of palace life anywhere else except for the inaccessibility which the name Harem implies (Arabic: not allowed, forbidden). Thus we leave the Place of Felicity, as the Ottoman Harem was known, and return to the Imperial Gate for a detour on the way to the Archeological Museum.