Explore Istanbul

The Grand Bazaar is a covered market in the old city whose founding is dated to 1461, when Sultan Mehmed II had the Cevahir Bedesten built to fund Hagia Sophia. Its vaulted lanes grew around that hall and today hold about 3,600 shops on 65 streets, with 14 hans and gates such as Beyazıt and Nuruosmaniye; carpets, jewellery and gold are traded here.

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.

The Spice Bazaar in Eminönü is an L-shaped covered market begun in 1597 for Safiye Sultan and completed in 1664 by the architect Mustafa Ağa as part of the New Mosque complex, for Hatice Turhan Sultan. Its Turkish name, Egyptian Bazaar, recalls the duties on Egyptian goods that funded it; six gates lead to stalls of spices, dried fruit and Turkish delight.

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.

Sultanahmet Square follows the track of the Hippodrome of Constantinople, laid out around 203 and enlarged by Constantine the Great as the city's chariot-racing arena. Along its old central spine stand the Obelisk of Theodosius, brought from Egypt and raised in 390, the bronze Serpent Column from Delphi, the Walled Obelisk and the German Fountain of 1900.

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.

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.