Category
Culture
42 places
- Statue of LibertyFrance's 1886 gift in the harbor, the first thing arriving ships saw — reached only by ferry, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.UNESCOLandmark
- Hagia SophiaJustinian's 6th-century basilica, later an Ottoman mosque and museum — for a thousand years the largest cathedral in the world.UNESCOAncient Site
- Brooklyn BridgeA steel-wire suspension span with a wooden promenade raised above the traffic — the walk, not the crossing, is the point.Landmark
- Palace of WestminsterThe home of Parliament, rebuilt after the 1834 fire; its clock tower holds the bell known as Big Ben.UNESCOLandmark
- Blue MosqueSultan Ahmed I's six-minaret mosque, named for the İznik tiles that line its interior.UNESCOMosque
- Tower BridgeThe bascule bridge beside the Tower, with a high walkway between its towers and the Victorian engine rooms below.Landmark
- Grand BazaarSixty covered streets and four thousand shops, continuously trading since the reign of Mehmed II.Market
- AnıtkabirAtatürk's mausoleum on a hill above the capital, approached along a colonnaded avenue of stone lions.Landmark
- Rockefeller CenterA private complex of Art Deco towers around a sunken plaza, with a rooftop deck that faces the Empire State Building.Landmark
- Galata TowerA Genoese watchtower over the Golden Horn, and the best-known silhouette on the northern shore.Landmark
- Trafalgar SquareThe square below the National Gallery, with Nelson's Column, the lion statues and a plinth that shows changing artworks.Landmark
- İstiklal AvenueA pedestrian mile of arcades, consulates and passages, with a nostalgic tram running its length.Landmark
- AspendosThe best-preserved Roman theater in Anatolia: 15,000 seats, intact stage building, still used for opera.Ancient Site
- Maiden's TowerA tower on its own islet mid-Bosphorus, rebuilt many times and attached to more legends than dates.Landmark
- KaleiçiThe walled old town: Ottoman houses, a Roman harbor and a fluted minaret, all within one circuit.Landmark
- Hippodrome of ConstantinopleThe chariot-racing spine of the Byzantine city, now a square holding an Egyptian obelisk and a bronze serpent column.UNESCOAncient Site
- Shakespeare's GlobeA timber and thatch reconstruction of the open-air playhouse Shakespeare wrote for, close to the original site.Theatre
- BüyükadaThe largest Princes' Island: no private cars, wooden mansions, and a monastery on the southern hill.Landmark
- Galata BridgeAnglers above, fish restaurants below, and the two halves of the old city on either end.Landmark
- Istanbul ModernTürkiye's first modern art museum, since 2023 in a Renzo Piano building on the Karaköy waterfront.Art Museum
- Museum of Turkish and Islamic ArtsCarpets, calligraphy and Seljuk woodwork in İbrahim Pasha's 16th-century palace on the Hippodrome.Art Museum
- BalatSteep lanes of painted timber houses, the old Jewish and Greek quarter of the Golden Horn.Landmark
- Pera MuseumOrientalist painting and Anatolian weights and measures in a restored 1893 hotel.Art Museum
- AlaçatıStone houses and blue shutters on the Çeşme peninsula, with reliable afternoon wind for surfers.Landmark
- Sakıp Sabancı MuseumCalligraphy and Ottoman painting in a Bosphorus villa, with a garden of sculpture above the water.Art Museum
- ŞirinceA hillside village of Greek stone houses, known for fruit wine and a mathematics institute.Landmark
- Konak Clock TowerA gift for Abdülhamid II's silver jubilee, and the emblem of the city ever since.Landmark
- Ecumenical Patriarchate of ConstantinopleThe senior see of the Orthodox world, behind a gate welded shut since 1821.Church
- AvanosA town on the Kızılırmak where the red clay has been thrown on kick-wheels since the Hittites.Landmark
- ModaA seaside promenade and the bookshops, meyhanes and record stores behind it.Landmark
- Pierre Loti HillA cable car up to the café where the French novelist watched the Golden Horn.Viewpoint
- ÜrgüpThe regional market town, built where cut-stone houses meet the cave dwellings in the cliff.Landmark
- HeybeliadaPine slopes and the shuttered Halki seminary, quieter than its larger neighbor.Landmark
- Çamlıca HillA hill above the Bosphorus, looking back across both continents at once.Viewpoint
- Museum of InnocenceOrhan Pamuk's novel built as a physical collection — 4,213 cigarette butts among the vitrines.Art Museum
- KuzguncukOne street of pastel houses where a mosque, a church and a synagogue stand within sight of each other.Landmark
- BebekA sheltered bay of moored boats and waterfront cafés under the second bridge.Landmark
- Çemberlitaş HamamA working Sinan bathhouse, in continuous use since Nurbanu Sultan endowed it.Landmark
- AsansörA public elevator built by a Jewish merchant to spare the neighborhood 155 steps.Landmark
- SALT GalataResearch library and exhibition space inside the former Ottoman Bank headquarters.Gallery
- CerModernContemporary art in the converted railway maintenance sheds beside the main station.Gallery
- AtakuleA 125-meter tower with a revolving restaurant, and the fixed point of the Çankaya skyline.Viewpoint