DESTINATION ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Istanbul is Turkey's most populous city, and its cultural and financial center. Located on both sides of the Bosphorus, the narrow strait between the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea, Istanbul truly bridges Asia and Europe both literally and figuratively.

Quick Links Mosques of Istanbul Museums/Monuments Dolmabahce Palace Bosphorus Strait

DISCOVER ISTANBUL: Mosques of Istanbul, Museums & Monuments, Basilica Cistern, Bosphorus Strait, Chora Church, Dolmabahce Palace, Golden Horn, Grand Bazaar, Palace of Porphyrogenitus, Pammakaristos Church, Prison of Anemas, Rumelihisari, Stoudios Monastery, Topkapi Palace, Valens Aqueduct, Walls of Constantinople,

MOSQUES OF ISTANBUL Suleiman the Magnificent's reign of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566 was a period of great artistic and architectural achievements. The famous architect Mimar Sinan designed many mosques and other grand buildings in the city, while Ottoman arts of ceramics, calligraphy and miniature also flourished ...

MOSQUES OF ISTANBUL: Blue Mosque, Bodrum Mosque, Fatih Mosque, Hagia Irene, Hagia Sophia, Little Hagia Sophia, New Mosque, Suleymaniye Mosque, ... see all Mosques of Istanbul

MUSEUMS & MONUMENTS Istanbul Modern frequently hosts the exhibitions of renowned Turkish and foreign artists. Pera Museum and Sakip Sabanci Museum are among the most important private museums in the city. Istanbul Archaeology Museum, established in 1881, is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world ...

MUSEUMS & MONUMENTS: Archaeology Museums, Column of the Goths, Column of Marcian, Galata Tower, Hippodrome, Maiden's Tower, Milion, Serpent Column, ... see all Museums & Monuments

BASILICA CISTERN The Basilica Cistern is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey. The cistern, located 500 feet west of the Hagia Sophia on the historical peninsula of Sarayburnu, was built in the 6th century during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I ...

BOSPHORUS STRAIT A stay in Istanbul is not complete without the traditional and unforgettable boat excursion up the Bosphorus, the winding strait that separates Europe and Asia. Its shores offer a delightful mixture of past and present, grand splendor and simple beauty. The shores of the strait are heavily populated as the city of Istanbul straddles it ...

CHORA CHURCH The Church of St. Savior in Chora is considered to be one of the most beautiful examples of a Byzantine church. The church is situated in the western, Edirnekapi district of Istanbul. In the 16th century, the church was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman rulers, and it became a secularised museum in 1948 ...

DOLMABAHCE PALACE The Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, located at the European side of the Bosporus, served as the main administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 to 1922, apart from a twenty-year interval (1889-1909) in which the Yildiz Palace was used. The Dolmabahçe Palace was built between the years 1843 and 1856 ...

GOLDEN HORN The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thoturkeynds of years. It is a scimitar-shaped estuary that joins the Bosphorus just at the point where that strait enters the Sea of Marmara ...

GRAND BAZAAR The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with more than 58 covered streets and over 1,200 shops which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. Opened in 1461, it is well known for its jewelry, pottery, spice, and carpet shops ...

PALACE OF PORPHYROGENITUS The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, known in Turkish as the Palace of the Sovereign, is a 13th-century Byzantine palace in the north-western part of the old city. An annex of the greater palace complex of Blachernae, it is the only Byzantine palace to survive in the city, and one of the few relatively intact examples of late Byzantine ...

PAMMAKARISTOS CHURCH Pammakaristos Church, also known as the Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos (Joyous Mother of God), later known as Fethiye Mosque and today partly a museum, is one of the most famous Byzantine churches in Istanbul. The parekklesion is one of the most important examples of Constantinople's Palaiologan architecture ...

PRISON OF ANEMAS The so-called Prison of Anemas is a large Byzantine building attached to the walls of the city of Constantinople. It is traditionally identified with the prisons named after Michael Anemas, a Byzantine general who rose in unsuccessful revolt against Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and was the first person to be imprisoned there ...

RUMELIHISARI Rumelihisari is a fortress located in the Sariyer district of Istanbul, on a hill at the European side of the Bosporus. It gives the name of the quarter around it. It was built by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II between 1451 and 1452, before he conquered Constantinople. The three great towers were named after Mehmed II's viziers ...

STUDIOS MONASTERY Hagios Ioannes Prodromos en tois Stoudiou, often shortened to Stoudios, was the most important monastery of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Although the monastery has been derelict for half a millennium, the laws and customs of the Stoudion were taken as models by the monks of Mount Athos ...

TOPKAPI PALACE The Topkapi Palace is a palace in Istanbul, Turkey, which was the official and primary residence in the city of the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years of their 624-year reign, from 1465 to 1856. The palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments and is a major tourist attraction today ...

VALENS AQUEDUCT The Valens Aqueduct (meaning Aqueduct of the grey falcon) was the major water-providing system of medieval Constantinople (modern Istanbul, in Turkey). Restored by several Ottoman Sultans, it is one of the most important landmarks of the city. The surviving section is 921 meters long, about 50 meters less than the original length ...

WALLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey) since its founding as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history ...

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