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 Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum occupies the palace of Grand Vizier Pargalı İbrahim Pasha, built around 1524 on the west side of the Hippodrome. Founded in 1914 and moved here in 1983, it shows carpets, calligraphy and Qurans, tiles, woodwork and metalwork from across the Islamic world, and an ethnographic section with reconstructed nomad tents and village rooms.

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 Basilica Cistern is an underground reservoir built under Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century to supply the Great Palace and nearby buildings. Its brick vaults, covering about 140 by 70 metres, rest on 336 marble columns nine metres high, and walkways lead over the water to two Medusa heads reused as column bases. A restoration completed in 2022 reopened it as a museum.

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.

Hagia Irene stands in the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace and is the oldest known church building in Istanbul; the present brick structure dates from Justinian I's rebuilding after 532. Never turned into a mosque, it served the Ottomans as an arsenal and is now a museum and concert venue, with a large black cross from the Iconoclast period in the apse.

The Istanbul Archaeology Museums in Gülhane, beside Topkapı Palace, group three buildings: the Neoclassical Archaeological Museum by Alexandre Vallaury, opened in 1891, the Museum of the Ancient Orient and the Tiled Kiosk of 1472. Expanded under director Osman Hamdi Bey, the collection includes the Alexander Sarcophagus and other finds from the royal necropolis of Sidon.

Topkapı Palace was built from 1460 to 1478 for Sultan Mehmed II on the headland above the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, and remained the sultans' main residence until Dolmabahçe Palace was completed in 1856. Its gates lead through four courtyards to the Harem, the Imperial Treasury, the Chamber of Holy Relics and pavilions overlooking the water.

Istanbul Modern opened in 2004 as Turkey's first museum of modern and contemporary art and moved in 2023 into a new building by Renzo Piano on the Karaköy waterfront, within the Galataport complex. It shows its collection of Turkish art from the 20th century onwards and its photography collection alongside temporary exhibitions, with a cinema and a library.

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 Maiden's Tower stands on a small islet at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus, 200 metres off the Üsküdar shore. Fortified by the Byzantines, who stretched a chain from it across the strait in the 12th century, it was rebuilt several times under the Ottomans and served as a lighthouse; after a restoration it reopened in 2023 as a museum reached by boat from Salacak.

Dolmabahçe Palace was built in 1843–1856 for Sultan Abdülmecid I by the architects Garabet and Nigoğayos Balyan on the European shore of the Bosphorus, replacing Topkapı as the seat of government. Visitor routes lead through the Selamlık, the domed Ceremonial Hall and the Harem; Atatürk died in the palace in 1938.

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.

Beylerbeyi Palace stands on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus in Üsküdar, beside the Bosphorus Bridge. Sultan Abdülaziz had it built in 1861–1865 as a summer residence and a guesthouse for foreign rulers such as Empress Eugénie; the marble building pairs a Neo-Baroque exterior with Ottoman interiors and has terraced gardens with smaller pavilions.