Divan Yolu, Istanbul, Turkey

Divan Yolu, the "Road to the Imperial Council," was once the imperial road from Constantinople to Rome.

When it was laid out by Constantine the Great in the early 300s AD, it was the Mese, the main boulevard leading from the city center on Seraglio Point to the Golden Gate in the city walls, where it met the road to Rome.

The beginning-point of the Mese was marked by a tall marble shaft called the Milion which still stands at the northeastern end of Sultanahmet Square in the little park above the Sunken Palace Cistern (Yerebatan Saray Sarniçi).

It takes its Turkish name from Ottoman times, when it was the "Road to the Imperial Council" (Divan).

It's now the main avenue through historic Old Istanbul, starting at Sultanahmet Square and the Hippodrome and heading westward to Beyazit Square and the Grand Bazaar.

Under different names the road continues out to the city walls, through a gate, and on toward Rome, a thousand miles (1600 km) away.

For visitors, Divan Yolu (dee-VAHN yoh-loo) is their main street from Sultanahmet and the Hippodrome past shops and restaurants, past Ottoman sultans' tombs, mosques and medreses (theological schools), past Byzantine forums and monuments such as Çemberlitas (the Burnt Column) to Beyazit Square, the Grand Bazaar and Istanbul University.

A half-hour's stroll along Divan Yolu from Sultanahmet Square to Beyazit Square is an enjoyable Istanbul history lesson—and you end up at the Grand Bazaar!

The Zeytinburnu-Kabatas tram goes along Divan Yolu carrying visitors between the ferry dock at Kabatas, through Karaköy, across the Galata Bridge, through Sultanahmet and its Hippodrome, to the Grand Bazaar, then onward to Zeytinburnu, where there's a connection to Istanbul's Metro to take you to Atatürk Airport and the Otogar (main bus terminal).

Sultanahmet

Hippodrome

Çemberlitas

Beyazit

Grand Bazaar

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Above, Divan Yolu passes the grand tombs of several sultans, including Sultan Abdülhamid II.
Below, the Milion, or initial mile-marker, of the Byzantine Mese, today's Divan Yolu.