Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A Seraglio is: The sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish Muslim household, from an Italian variant of Turkish seray, meaning 'palace, enclosed courts'. Topkapi Seray is the main Ottoman palace in Istanbul, now a museum (robbed by Maximilian Schell in Jules Dassin's movie Topkapi). A 'caravanserai' is an inn or rest stop for caravans. The word has a Persian origin. A harem, and therefore in the heated European imagination a place of dalliance and debauchery with odalisques. The term can also refer to traditional palaces and grand houses built around courtyards in the Turkish city of Istambul. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.