Ibrahim Usta
A renovated hall of Pera Palace is seen, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, July 30, 2010. It was the last stop on the Orient Express, a grand hotel with Istanbul's first electric elevator where artists and aristocrats sipped champagne beneath chandeliers as the Ottoman Empire dissolved and the world drifted toward war. On Sept. 1, the Pera Palace will re-open after a two-year restoration that cost euro23 million ($30 million), seeking to capture the lost sparkle of what was one of Istanbul's most prominent landmarks.(AP Photo/Ibrahim Usta)
