Location Guide

Two minutes from the door, the Grand Bazaar opens its sixty odd covered streets of carpets, lamps, gold, ceramics and leather. Enter through a smaller side gate rather than the main Beyazıt entrance and the atmosphere is calmer. Inside, the old lokanta Havuzlu serves traditional home style dishes, and Şark Kahvesi pours Turkish coffee under the vaulted ceiling where bazaar merchants have taken their breaks for generations.

Just down the hill rises the Column of Constantine at Çemberlitaş, erected in the fourth century when the city became the new Roman capital. Beside it, the Çemberlitaş Hamamı, designed by Mimar Sinan in the sixteenth century, still operates as a working bath. A traditional scrub there after a day of walking is the best possible remedy for tired legs.

Above the bazaar, Süleymaniye Mosque dominates the ridge, about seventeen minutes on foot. It is Sinan's masterpiece and far less crowded than the Blue Mosque, and the terrace behind it offers one of the finest views over the Golden Horn. On the street by the mosque complex a row of small restaurants serves kuru fasulye, white beans with rice, a dish Istanbul people travel across the city to eat here.

Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern form a separate walking loop roughly a kilometre away. The route passes through Divanyolu, the old imperial road, with its Ottoman tombs and fountains. Doing the loop early in the morning and returning to the bazaar area for lunch divides the day naturally.

Behind Beyazıt Square, the Sahaflar book market hides in a quiet courtyard between the bazaar and the university gate. Old engravings, calligraphy and second hand books have been sold here since Ottoman times. Nearby, in winter, Vefa Bozacısı serves boza, the thick fermented millet drink topped with cinnamon and roasted chickpeas, in a shop almost unchanged since the nineteenth century.