Sultanahmet
Right in the heart of İstanbul’s historic center, this sacred Byzantine building remains an important symbol of power.
Must-see attractions in Sultanahmet
Sultanahmet
Topkapı is the subject of more colourful stories than most of the world's museums put together. Libidinous sultans, ambitious courtiers, beautiful…
Sultanahmet
The city's foremost archaeological museum is housed in three buildings close to Topkapı Palace. There are many highlights, but the sarcophagi from the…
Sultanahmet
This subterranean structure was commissioned by Emperor Justinian and built in 532. The largest surviving Byzantine cistern in İstanbul, it was…
Sultanahmet
İstanbul's most photogenic building was the grand project of Sultan Ahmet I (r 1603–17), whose tomb is located on the north side of the site facing…
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Museum of Turkish & Islamic Arts
Sultanahmet
This Ottoman palace was built in 1524 for İbrahim Paşa, childhood friend, brother-in-law and grand vizier of Süleyman the Magnificent. It now houses a…
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Sultanahmet
The Byzantine emperors loved nothing more than an afternoon at the chariot races, and this rectangular arena alongside Sultanahmet Park was their venue of…
Sultanahmet
Part of the Aya Sofya complex but entered via Babıhümayun Caddesi, these tombs are the final resting places of five 16th- and 17th-century sultans –…
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Sultanahmet
Housed in an imaret (soup kitchen) added to the Aya Sofya complex in the 18th century, this museum is entered through a spectacular baroque gate and gives…
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Sultanahmet
Justinian and his wife Theodora built this little church sometime between 527 and 536, just before Justinian built Aya Sofya. You can still see their…
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Sultanahmet
Gülhane Park was once part of the grounds of Topkapı Palace, accessible only to the royal court. These days crowds of locals come here to picnic under the…
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Sultanahmet
Running between the Topkapı Palace walls and Aya Sofya, this picturesque cobbled street is named after the Soğuk Çeşme (Cold Fountain) at its southern end…
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Museum of Great Palace Mosaics
Sultanahmet
When archaeologists from the University of Ankara and Scotland's University of St Andrews excavated around the nearby Arasta Bazaar in the 1930s and 1950s…
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Sokullu Şehit Mehmet Paşa Mosque
Sultanahmet
Mimar Sinan designed this mosque in 1571 at the height of his architectural career. Besides its architectural harmony, the mosque is unusual because the…
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Sultanahmet
Coming up out of a hole in the ground, this strange column was once much taller and was topped by three serpents' heads. Originally cast to commemorate a…
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İstanbul Museum of the History of Science & Technology in Islam
Sultanahmet
Of interest to science buffs, the didactic exhibition in this museum argues that Islamic advances in science and technology preceded and greatly…
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Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar Literature Museum Library
Sultanahmet
Built into the wall of Gülhane Park, the 19th-century Alay Köşkü (Parade Kiosk) is a polygonal building where the sultan would sit and watch the periodic…
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Sultanahmet
The türbe (tomb) of Sultan Ahmet I, the Blue Mosque’s great patron, is on the north side of the mosque facing Sultanahmet Park. Ahmet, who had ascended to…
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Sultanahmet
Commissioned by Justinian in the 540s, this Byzantine church is almost exactly as old as its near neighbour, Aya Sofya. Used as an arsenal for centuries,…
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Sultanahmet
In the centre of the Hippodrome, this immaculately preserved pink granite obelisk was carved in Egypt during the reign of Thutmose III (r 1549–1503 BC)…
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Sultanahmet
This lovely little building tucked away in the shadow of Aya Sofya was designed by Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan on the orders of Cafer Ağa, Süleyman the…
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Sultanahmet
Near the northern end of the Hippodrome, this little gazebo with beautiful stonework was presented to the sultan and his people as a token of friendship…
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Sultanahmet
This historic arcade of shops was once part of the külliye (mosque complex) of the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii). Mosques built by the great and…
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Sultanahmet
After sacking Aya Sofya in 1204, the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade tore all the plates from this obelisk, at the Hippodrome's southern end, in the…
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Marmara University Republican Museum
Sultanahmet
Located at the southern end of the Hippodrome, this museum is housed in a handsome example of Ottoman Revivalism, a homegrown architectural style popular…
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Sultanahmet
This was kilometre zero during the Byzantine Empire: the starting point of the Via Egnatia, the great road linking Constantinople with the Adriatic coast,…
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Sultanahmet
This outrageously curvaceous rococo gate leads into the precincts of what was once the grand vizierate, or Ottoman prime ministry, known in the West as…
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Sultanahmet
The only remaining built section of the Hippodrome hints at how monumental the arena was. The level of galleries that once topped this section was damaged…
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Sultanahmet Archaeological Park
Sultanahmet
Excavations here have uncovered parts of the Great Palace of Byzantium. The park has been closed for restoration for almost a decade, with no signs of it…
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Sultanahmet
Topkapı Palace's Imperial Gate leads to the palace's First Court, known as the Court of the Janissaries or the Parade Court. You can go through the gate…
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Sultanahmet
This late 16th-century mosque, rebuilt in the 1860s and renovated in the 1960s, was originally constructed by Hacı Üveys bin Kevser, a governor and…
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Sultanahmet
This promontory, named after the sequestered living quarters occupied by the Topkapı Palace harem, separates the Golden Horn from the Sea of Marmara.
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Sultanahmet
This ornate rococo-style fountain outside the Imperial Gate to Topkapı Palace's First Court was built in 1728 by the sultan who so favoured tulips.
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Sultanahmet
In the residential neighbourhood of Küçük Ayasofya, this hamam dating to 1503 is now a ruin.
