Explore Istanbul

The Süleymaniye Mosque crowns the Third Hill above the Golden Horn and was built in 1550–1557 by the architect Mimar Sinan for Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Its complex holds madrasas, a hospice and the tombs of Suleiman and Hürrem Sultan. It is a working mosque: visits pause at prayer times, and visitors cover shoulders and knees, women their hair.

The Rüstem Pasha Mosque near the Spice Bazaar was designed by Mimar Sinan for Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha and completed around 1563. Raised above vaulted shops and reached by stairs from the street, it has İznik tiles in many patterns on the porch and prayer hall walls. It is a working mosque, closed to visitors during prayers; modest dress is expected.

Little Hagia Sophia was built under Emperor Justinian in the 520s or 530s as the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus and became a mosque in the early 16th century, under Bayezid II. Its domed octagonal hall, ringed by a two-storey colonnade with carved capitals, is among the oldest Byzantine buildings in Istanbul; it is a working mosque, closed to visitors during prayers.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque was built in 1609–1616 for Sultan Ahmed I by the architect Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, facing Hagia Sophia across Sultanahmet Square. Six minarets and cascading domes rise over a prayer hall lined with Iznik tiles. As a working mosque it closes to visitors around the noon and afternoon prayers and on Friday mornings; arms, legs and hair must be covered.

Hagia Sophia was built in 532–537 for Emperor Justinian I by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, under a central dome about 55 metres high. A cathedral for nine centuries, it became a mosque in 1453, a museum in 1934 and a mosque again in 2020; since 2024 tourists reach the upper galleries and their Byzantine mosaics by a separate ticketed route.

The Chora is a Byzantine church in Edirnekapı whose mosaics and frescoes were added in 1315–1321 for the statesman Theodore Metochites, among them the Anastasis in the side chapel. Converted to a mosque in the early 16th century and a museum from 1945, it reopened as the Kariye Mosque in 2024; tourist visits pause at prayer times and on Fridays.

The Ortaköy Mosque, formally the Büyük Mecidiye Mosque, stands on the pier square of Ortaköy at the edge of the Bosphorus, beside the Bosphorus Bridge. Commissioned by Sultan Abdülmecid I and completed around 1854–1856, it is a Neo-Baroque design by Garabet and Nikoğos Balyan with a single dome and two slender minarets; it closes to visitors during prayers.