Things To Do
Hagia Sophia
The Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, with its innovative architecture, rich history, religious significance and extraordinary characteristics has been fighting against time for centuries, was the largest Eastern Roman Church in İstanbul. Constructed three times in the same location, it is the world’s oldest and fastest-completed cathedral. With its breathtaking domes that look like hanging in the air, monolithic marble columns and unparalleled mosaics, is one of the wonders of world’s architecture history.
Topkapı Palace
Topkapı Palace (Topkapı Sarayı) and Harem are likely to have more colourful stories than most of the world's museums put together. Libidinous sultans, ambitious courtiers, beautiful concubines and scheming eunuchs lived and worked here between the 15th and 19th centuries when it was the court of the Ottoman empire. A visit to the palace's opulent pavilions, jewel-filled Treasury and sprawling Harem gives a fascinating glimpse into their lives.
Galata Tower
Considered among the oldest towers in the world and one of the symbols of İstanbul, Galata Tower (Galata Kulesi) was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Temporary List in 2013. Galata Tower, one of the most important structures that make up the silhouette of İstanbul, was used as a long-term fire watchtower and was named Galata Fire Tower.
Basilica Cistern
The Basilica Cistern Museum is one of the most important cultural assets where we can trace the traces of glorious Istanbul history. This grand underground cistern, built by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (527-565), is nicknamed “Yerebatan Sarayı” (Sunken Palace) among the public due to its numerous marble columns rising from the water.
The Blue Mosque
The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, also known by its official name, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, is an Ottoman-era historical imperial mosque located in Istanbul, Turkey. It was constructed between 1609 and 1617 during the rule of Ahmed I and remains a functioning mosque today. It is dubbed the Blue Mosque because of over 20,000 handmade ceramic Iznik tiles that decorate the interior, featuring many different tulips, rose, carnation, and lily designs, well lit by 260 windows.
Grand Bazaar
Built around 1461 by Fatih Sultan Mehmet to help build the economy and support the nearby Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, the Grand Bazaar is one of the world’s oldest and largest covered markets. Today, it covers some 330,000 square feet and houses more than 4,000 merchants, along with a few restaurants, cafes and inns.
Dolmabahce Palace
The palace was inhabited from the year 1856 by six Ottoman Empire Sultans and the last Caliph until 1924. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed temporarily in the palace for a total of 4 years, between 1927-1938. He worked from the palace and passed away there. The palace was used as a presidential residence during the term of İsmet İnönü till the year 1949, and was opened to public as a palace-museum with its original furnishings in 1984.
Maiden's Tower
The Maiden’s Tower ( Turkish: Kız Kulesi ) is one of the most popular landmarks and monuments of the city, with a history that spans over two millennia. The tower was originally built by the Athenian general Alcibiades in 408 BC as a custom station for ships coming from the Black Sea. It was later rebuilt and used as a defense tower by the Byzantine emperors, who connected it to the Asian shore with a chain to prevent enemy ships from entering the Bosphorus. During the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the tower was destroyed and then reconstructed by Sultan Mehmed II. It served as a lighthouse, a quarantine station, and a military base throughout the Ottoman era.
Turkish Baths (Hammams)
For centuries, Istanbul's hammams have been a source of pleasure and relaxation for visitors and locals alike. These storied bathing houses are part of the city's rich cultural and historical fabric, representing a physical manifestation of Ottoman tradition. What makes the experience unique is that hammams are really more than just bathhouses – they use a combination of heat, water and massage to achieve both physical healing and spiritual rehabilitation.
Cappadocia
Ancient volcanic eruptions and centuries of erosion have given the Cappadocia region of central Turkey one of the most distinctive landscapes in the country, if not the world. Its undulating, rose-tinted valleys are speckled with the towering tufa formations dubbed “fairy chimneys”. The same soft rock that was slowly shaped by nature was also worked by human hands to form thousands of cave dwellings, churches, monasteries and even entire underground cities.
Turkish Riviera
Just an hour-long flight from Istanbul, Turquoise coast, a stretch of coastline that connects the Aegean and the Mediterranean in southwest Turkey, has long been a glamorous escape for creative urbanites fleeing the oppressive summer heat, and artsy Europeans eager to sail upon one of the traditional wooden gulets the region is famous for.