In 2019 large parts of Topkapı were closed for restoration, but there was one extra: the mehter band marching in. I like their music (in doing so I seem to be exceptional), and their shows are always a pleasure. They marched into the first courtyard, then made some extra show (with singing) at the second courtyard, at the gate to the third. I cropped many pictures, because of the huge amount of tourists in view, almost all behind their mobile.

I copy this series at the mether gallery of the Military Museum. The Wikipedia has: "Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of military marching bands in the world. Though they are often known by the word mahtar (مهتر; mehter in Ottoman Turkish) in West Europe, that word, properly speaking, refers only to a single musician in the band. In Ottoman, the band was generally known as mehterân, though those bands used in the retinue of a vizier or prince were generally known as mehterhane (مهترخانه, meaning roughly, "a gathering of mehters", the band as a whole is often termed mehter bölüğü ("mehter company [troop]"), mehter takımı ("mehter platoon"). In West Europe, the band's music is also often called Janissary music because the janissaries formed the core of the bands. "