Istanbul
Two shores, two continents, and some sixteen million people crossing between them every day.
The city was capital to three empires and still behaves as though it sits in the middle of all of them. Sultanahmet holds Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace and the Basilica Cistern within a few minutes' walk of one another. Across the Golden Horn, Galata and Karaköy are cafés, workshops and the tram climbing İstiklal.
The Bosphorus divides Europe from Asia and public ferries cross it all day — the cheapest and the most beautiful ride in the city. On the Asian side, Kadıköy eats and drinks unhurriedly, well away from the queues.
Three days cover the historic centre without rushing. Five make room for the Asian side, the Princes' Islands, and a neighbourhood with no monument at all, which is usually the one people remember.
Places
Hagia Sophia
For a thousand years the largest cathedral in the world, then a mosque, then a museum, and a mosque again today.
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The Blue Mosque
Twenty thousand İznik tiles inside, six minarets outside, and still a working neighbourhood mosque.
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Topkapı Palace
Four courtyards instead of one building — the logic of a campaign tent, in stone.
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The Basilica Cistern
Three hundred and thirty-six columns under the street, holding the water of a city that could be besieged.
Read moreThe Süleymaniye Mosque
The mosque Sinan built at his height, on the one hill from which you see the whole city.
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The Chora Church (Kariye)
The finest surviving set of Byzantine mosaics, in a small building well away from the queues.
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The Grand Bazaar
More than four thousand shops under vaults, and a map nobody manages to hold in their head.
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The Spice Bazaar
An L of vaults beside the harbour, built to pay for the mosque next door.
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The Galata Tower
The tower of a foreign colony that ended up inside the city surrounding it.
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The Maiden's Tower
An islet mid-current, with two thousand years of usefulness and a better legend.
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Balat and Fener
The Jewish and Greek quarters of the Ottoman city, still with the hills and the churches that left behind.
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Classic Istanbul, on foot
Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome and the Basilica Cistern, in the order that avoids the queues.
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The Bosphorus by boat
The city seen from the place where it makes sense: the water between the two continents.
See the tourBazaars and spices
The Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar and the trading streets between them — where the city actually shops.
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Asian Istanbul: Kadıköy and Üsküdar
The other side of the city, where there is almost no queue and the food is better.
See the tourBalat, Fener and the Golden Horn
Painted houses, Greek churches, synagogues, and the cable car up to Pierre Loti.
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The Princes' Islands
An hour by boat and no cars: wooden houses, pine trees and the Sea of Marmara.
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