Grand Bazaar
Sultan Mehmed II raised a gem market here in the winter of 1455/56, shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople — and it still draws up to 400,000 people a day.
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Construction of the core Bedestan began in 1455/56, built to trade textiles and jewels near the sultan's new palace. The finished structure — the Cevâhir Bedestan, "Bedesten of Gems" — was endowed to the Hagia Sophia mosque by 1460/61. The 61 covered streets and 4,000 shops spread across 30,700 m² make it one of the first shopping malls ever built, and in 2014 it ranked the world's most-visited attraction at 91 million annual visitors.
What to look for
- The East Gate of the Old Bedestan: a Byzantine relief of a Comnenian eagle is set into the stonework above the door
- The mosques of Beyazıt and Nuruosmaniye at opposite ends — they mark the bazaar's full west-to-east span
- The 15th-century brickwork of the inner Bedestan, the oldest surviving fabric on the site
Tram to Beyazıt-Kapalıçarşı stop, reachable from both Sultanahmet and Sirkeci.
Grand Bazaar is one of 39 sights worth the detour in Istanbul, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Istanbul pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Istanbul
- Hagia SophiaCompleted in 537, it held the title of world's largest church for over 500 years — then a mosque, a museum, and a mosque again.
- Constantinople (Istanbul)One peninsula that served as the throne of four empires for sixteen centuries straight.
- Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)Ahmed I placed it directly opposite Hagia Sophia in 1609 and gave it six minarets — a deliberate challenge to the city's greatest building.
- Topkapı PalaceFor nearly four centuries, the sultans who ruled the Ottoman Empire lived and governed from here — until the court finally moved to Dolmabahçe in 1856.
- ByzantiumGreeks from Megara planted a colony here in the 7th century BC — and the name they gave it eventually became the word for an entire empire.
- Rams Park (Ali Sami Yen Sports Complex)Galatasaray's 53,978-seat fortress on the European side of Istanbul — and the second most eco-friendly stadium on the planet.