Note from Dan and Sarah: There is a lot to do and see in Istanbul. Though we were in Istanbul for 6 days in 2023, we had a couple of issues with getting around (nothing to do with Istanbul) - we were recovering from a mild cold the first two days and then we spent a day helping our son get out of a war zone. So, we packed as much as we could into a few days.
1) Spice Bazaar (aka Egyptian Bazaar)
This is a fun place to visit and buy spices. The market is a building built in the late 16th century, sponsored by the mother of a sultan, so the construction and features are impressive and worth seeing even if you don't want to shop. Though a bit touristy in the main building, it's worth walking through to see what's available and look at prices. There are various streets surrounding the bazaar packed with shops of many kinds (from food to clothing to electronics) and you can easily spend an hour or two wandering through these areas.
Open every day 8:00 AM - 7:30 PM. Rüstem Paşa, 34116 Fatih/İstanbul. Free to enter.
2) Suleymaniye Mosque complex (with tomb of the Suleymaniye the Magnificent)
This huge mosque was completed in 1557 and then served as the burial site for the sultan and his wife. The mosque is on top of the Third Hill (of Seven) in Istanbul so there are also some amazing views from the grounds of the mosque.
Open every day from 8:30 AM - 4:45 PM except Fridays open 8:30 AM - 1:30 AM(!). Süleymaniye, Prof. Sıddık Sami Onar Cd. No:1, 34116 Fatih/İstanbul. Free (except bathrooms which cost 10 TL)
Note that the Basilica Cistern, Archeology Museum, Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia (#3-7 below) are all quite close to each other. In one long, ambitious day you can do them all.
3) Basilica Cistern (in Turkish, Yerebatan Sarnici)
This is a huge cistern built in the 6th century by the Emperor Justinian I in order to provide water to Istanbul (at the time, Constantinople) dwellers. Interestingly, Istanbul has very few large nearby sources of fresh water. Through a series of aqueducts almost 400 km long, fresh water could be brought to Istanbul. But, the city needed to store it - thus, various cisterns were built, of which this was one of the biggest. There was originally a basilica (a large public building) above the site of the cistern.
The chamber is about 450 feet by 210 feet, with the ceiling held up by 336 30-ft pillars. In total, the cistern could hold 2.8 million cubic feet of water, which could easily provide enough water for the whole city for a year at the time it was built.
Nowadays, the water level is about 1-2 feet and you can walk around on metal walkways raised above the water, walking around various pillars and pieces of art, lit by various spotlights.
Basilica Cistern. Alemdar, Yerebatan Cd. 1/3, 34110 Fatih/İstanbul. 495 TL/person between 9 AM - 7 PM; 695 TL between 7:30 - 10 PM for Night Shift, when various musicians perform. Be sure to buy online in advance to avoid the longer buy-now ticket line (You will need to create a Passo account which takes 1-2 minutes). The visit lasts about 1 hour.
This is actually a group of 3 museums in one: the Archeology Museum, the Tiled Kiosk Museum and the Museum of Ancient Orient. We spent our time in the Archeology Museum because the other two were closed for renovation.
The museum apparently has over a million artifacts though not all are displayed. There are summary placards in most rooms about the history, politics and/or economy of the era which were quite useful and interesting. Individual placards (with a few exceptions in the Sarcophagus room) were less informative, giving just a name to the object and a date.
We explored the museum reasonably thoroughly in about 2 hours.
Archeology Museum. Cankurtaran, 34122 Fatih/İstanbul. 340 TL/person. Summer hours: 9 AM - 8 PM
5) Topkapi Palace
From 1460 until the mid-1800's, this palace served as the administrative center for the Ottaman empire and was the residence for its sultans. This is an enormous palace consisting of four courtyards each with their own buildings and gardens. It's not as big as Versaille, but you can spend several hours wandering the grounds of Topkapi without seeing it all.
The Harem section is a fascinating area to visit. Harem refers to the private family quarters (which include the harem of women that we typically associate with the word 'harem') and consists of almost 300 rooms that housed the sultan and his family, including kitchens, hammams, meeting rooms, instruction rooms (both for the soldiers who guarded the sultan and school for the sultan's children), bedrooms and courtyards.
Although the buildings and grounds are beautiful, the rooms rarely contained furniture (one building in the 4th courtyard contained early and mid-19th century French furniture), and areas such as the kitchens were bare except for a few items in cases.
There is a small cafe on site but it mostly provides drinks.
Topkapi Palace. Cankurtaran, 34122 Fatih/İstanbul. 650 TL without the Harem portion of the Palace; 950 TL with the Harem portion (definitely recommended). Open every day except Tuesday from 10 AM - 4 PM.
6) Sultanahmet Mosque (aka the Blue Mosque)
The formal name of this mosque is the Sultanahmet mosque. The informal name comes from the many bright blue tiles inside the mosque (though there are other colors of tiles, blue dominates). This mosque was completed in 1617 by Sultan Ahmed I.
Like at most mosques, your visit here is likely to be pretty fast (maybe 15-20 minutes; unless there are long lines to enter...). It's a beautiful mosque and worth visiting, especially since it's close to other places of interest.
Sultanahmet Mosque. Binbirdirek, At Meydanı Cd No:10, 34122 Fatih/İstanbul. Free entry. Open every day from about 9 AM - 7 or 8 PM, except Friday when it opens at 2:30 PM.
7) Hagia Sofia (in Turkish, Ayasofya Camii)
This mosque was originally built in 537 by the Byzantine emperor, Justinian I and served as a church until 1453. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, it became a mosque. Though there are no longer any pews or perches for priests, the mosque feels like a church, from the stained glass windows to the occasional Christian paintings on the ceiling, and in one case, an archway.
Hagia Sofia mosque. Ayasofya Meydanı No:1, 34122 Fatih/İstanbul. Free entry. Open every day from about 8-9 AM to 7 or 8 PM, except Friday when it opens at 2:30 PM.
8) Grand Bazaar
This is one of the largest covered shopping areas in the world; it's easy and fun to get lost in both the Bazaar itself as well as the surrounding streets that are also packed with shops.
There are some interesting silver and antique shops, but we didn't see any particularly interesting souvenir shops. On the other hand, if you need clothes, groceries, knock-off watches, jewelry, shoes, or household goods, it's a great place to go. I should mention that we did not explore the whole Bazaar, so we may have missed some more interesting areas. The Bazaar is close to many other interesting sites, so it's definitely worth at least briefly wandering through.
Grand Bazaar. Beyazıt, 34126 Fatih/İstanbul. Free to enter. Open every day except Sunday from 8:30 AM - 7:00 PM
9) Guided tour of Jewish Istanbul/Constantinople/Byzantium
We took a private one-day tour with Sandra Saul Biner to visit Jewish neighborhoods and synagogues in Istanbul. Sandra nicely tailored the day to our interests.
Although most of the Turkish propaganda talks about the Ottoman empire welcoming Sephardic Jews in 1492 and thereafter, Jews have actually been in Turkey and Greece for thousands of years. These Byzantine Jews, aka Romaniotes, are Greek-speaking Jews, and have been in present-day Turkey for at least 2500 years. Romaniotes are distinct from Sephardic Jews and speak Yevanic (Greek-Hebrew!). In addition, a number of places in the Torah (Old Testament) are actually in present-day Turkey (the city of Haran, where Abraham lived after leaving Ur; Mt. Ararat, where Noah's ark landed; Hittites, mentioned in the Torah a number of times and ruled parts of present-day Turkey).
Unfortunately most Romaniotes were killed in the Holocaust and most Turkish Jews have emigrated to Israel or the United States. Nevertheless, there are still populations of Jews in Istanbul and Izmir, many of whom are Ashkenazi, and arrived after the pogroms in Russia and Ukraine in the 1880s.
There are several Jewish neighborhoods in Istanbul, as well as several active synagogues and some synagogues serving as museums and/or exhibit spaces, though most of the Jews live on the outskirts of Istanbul now. There were also several prominent Turkish families such as the Camondos, who used to own a lot of real estate in Istanbul and were wealthy donors to various foundations and causes. The last of this family died in the Holocaust, having been living in France in the 1930's.
Sandra Saul Biner. WhatsApp +90 532 653 15 24
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