ISTANBUL’S TOP SIGHTS
There are sights you should be sure to see, ranked in order of importance and ease of access. Luckily, the first six are close together near Sultanahmet Square. You can visit them on your own, or on a half-day or full-day city tour.
Topkapi Palace: Home (and Harem) of the Sultan
Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia): changed the course of Western architecture; greatest church in Christendom for 1000 years.
Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque: Islam’s elegant answer to Ayasofya, with six minarets and blue interior tiles.
Bosphorus Cruise: the perfect half-day Istanbul excursion, up toward the Black Sea past castles, palaces and Ottoman-Victorian villages.
Byzantine Hippodrome: the political and recreational heart of Byzantine Constantinople and Ottoman Istanbul.
Turkish & Islamic Arts Museum: facing the Blue Mosque on the Hippodrome, a treasure house of 1000 years of fine art.
Sunken Palace Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi): an eerie subterranean “Sunken Palace” of 336 marble columns which could hold 80,000 cubic feet of water in case of drought or siege.
Grand Bazaar: the ultimate medieval “shopping center”, with 4000 shops, fun whether you buy or just browse.
Egyptian (Spice) Market: food, spices, coffee, snacks and some touristy stuff
Beyoglu: the romance of 19th century Istanbul.
Dolmabahce Palace: the sultan’s sumptuous new (1856) European style palace on the Bosphorus.
Princes’ Islands: get away to islands with Victorian-era towns free of motor vehicles: walk, bicycle, or take a horse-drawn carriage tour.
