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ISTANBUL'S
TOP SIGHTS
These
are the sights you should be sure
to see, ranked in order of importance and ease
of access. (Here
are daily
itineraries for the top
sites.) Luckily,
the first six are close together
near Sultanahmet
Square. You can visit them on
your own, or on Backpackers
Travel's
value-for-money Old
Istanbul Guided Walking Tour. Sites
farther out (Kariye
mosaics, City
Walls, Tekfur
Saray, Ecumenical Patriarchate)
can easily be visited on a Kariye
& City Walls tour.)
I've also made up self-guided
walking tours.
1.
Topkapı Palace: home
(and Harem!) of the sultans
2.
Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia):
changed the course of Western
architecture; greatest church
in Christendom for 1000 years
3.
Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque: Islam's
elegant answer to Ayasofya, with
six minarets and blue interior
tiles
4.
Byzantine Hippodrome:
the political and recreational
heart of Byzantine Constantinople
and Ottoman Istanbul
5.
Turkish & Islamic Arts Museum: facing
the Blue
Mosque on the Hippodrome,
a treasure-house of 1000 years
of fine art
6.
Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan
Sarnıçı): an eerie subterranean "sunken
palace" of 336 marble columns
which could hold 80,000 cubic
feet of water in case of drought
or siege
7.
Grand Bazaar: the ultimate
medieval "shopping center," with
4000 shops, fun whether you buy
or just browse
8.
Egyptian (Spice) Market: food,
spices, coffee,
snacks and some touristy stuff
9.
Beyoğlu: the
romance of 19th-century Istanbul
10.
Dolmabahçe Palace: the
sultan's sumptuous new (1856)
European-style palace on the
Bosphorus
11.
Bosphorus Cruise: the
perfect 90-minute, half-day or
full-day Istanbul excursion,
up toward the Black
Sea past castles, palaces
and Ottoman-Victorian villages
12.
Princes' Islands: get
away to islands with Victorian-era
towns free of motor vehicles:
walk, bicycle, or take a horse-drawn
carriage tour
MORE
ISTANBUL SIGHTS
These sights are also important but more difficult
to get to, or of narrower appeal. More...
EXCURSIONS FROM ISTANBUL
Want to get out of the city? Here are
the best one-day and overnight destinations.
More...
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