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Contains
Places 28
- Hagia SophiaJustinian's 6th-century basilica, later an Ottoman mosque and museum — for a thousand years the largest cathedral in the world.UNESCOAncient Site
- Topkapı PalaceSeat of Ottoman sultans for four centuries, a city of courtyards above the meeting of two seas.UNESCOPalace
- Blue MosqueSultan Ahmed I's six-minaret mosque, named for the İznik tiles that line its interior.UNESCOMosque
- Grand BazaarSixty covered streets and four thousand shops, continuously trading since the reign of Mehmed II.Market
- Basilica CisternA subterranean forest of 336 columns built to water the Great Palace — two of them resting on Medusa heads.UNESCOAncient Site
- Süleymaniye MosqueSinan's imperial mosque on the third hill — the architect considered it his journeyman work, not his masterpiece.UNESCOMosque
- Spice BazaarAn L-shaped hall of spice, dried fruit and lokum, built to fund the New Mosque next door.Market
- Chora ChurchByzantium's finest surviving mosaics and frescoes, in a modest church far from the tourist spine.UNESCOChurch
- Hippodrome of ConstantinopleThe chariot-racing spine of the Byzantine city, now a square holding an Egyptian obelisk and a bronze serpent column.UNESCOAncient Site
- Istanbul Archaeology MuseumsThree buildings holding the Alexander Sarcophagus, the Treaty of Kadesh, and the Tiled Kiosk of 1472.History Museum
- Walls of ConstantinopleSix kilometers of triple land walls that held for a thousand years, until gunpowder.UNESCOAncient Site
- Galata BridgeAnglers above, fish restaurants below, and the two halves of the old city on either end.Landmark
- BalatSteep lanes of painted timber houses, the old Jewish and Greek quarter of the Golden Horn.Landmark
- Museum of Turkish and Islamic ArtsCarpets, calligraphy and Seljuk woodwork in İbrahim Pasha's 16th-century palace on the Hippodrome.Art Museum
- Fatih MosqueThe conqueror's own mosque complex, raised on the site of the Church of the Holy Apostles.Mosque
- Rüstem Pasha MosqueRaised above a row of shops and lined wall-to-wall with the best İznik tile in the city.Mosque
- Valens AqueductA double tier of Roman arches striding across the modern boulevard that runs beneath it.Ancient Site
- New MosqueSixty-six years between foundation and completion, anchoring the Eminönü waterfront.Mosque
- Great Palace Mosaic MuseumA surviving peristyle floor from the Byzantine imperial palace, hunting scenes rendered in tesserae.UNESCOHistory Museum
- Gülhane ParkThe outer garden of Topkapı, opened to the public and famous for its April tulips.Park
- Ecumenical Patriarchate of ConstantinopleThe senior see of the Orthodox world, behind a gate welded shut since 1821.Church
- Little Hagia SophiaSaints Sergius and Bacchus — the dome experiment that preceded Hagia Sophia by a few years.Church
- Şehzade MosqueSinan's memorial to the prince Mehmed — the work he called his apprentice piece.Mosque
- Yedikule FortressSeven towers grafted onto the Golden Gate, used in turn as treasury, prison and place of execution.Castle
- Zeyrek MosqueThe Pantokrator monastery, second only to Hagia Sophia among the city's surviving Byzantine churches.UNESCOChurch
- Bulgarian St. Stephen ChurchCast in iron in Vienna, shipped down the Danube and bolted together on the Golden Horn.Church
- Çemberlitaş HamamA working Sinan bathhouse, in continuous use since Nurbanu Sultan endowed it.Landmark
- Tekfur PalaceThe only substantially intact Byzantine palace left in the city, wedged into the land walls.Palace
Sources
- Terratlasia Editorialproprietary