Spice Bazaar

The Spice Bazaar is a covered market hall in Eminönü that was paid for by an empire's tax farm and built to keep a mosque solvent. Work began in 1660, in the months after the Great Fire of 24 July that year had cleared the shoreline, and the patron was Turhan Hatice Sultan, the valide sultan and mother of Mehmed IV. The court architect Koca Kasım Ağa drew it and Mustafa Ağa ran the site. Yes. There is no admission ticket. The L-shaped main arcade is on one level with broad gate thresholds, though crowds and shop displays narrow passage. Public toilets and food stalls are available in and around the adjoining Eminönü market streets. Spice Bazaar: Open daily 08:00-19:30. The bazaar closes on 29 October and on the official days of the major religious holidays; individual traders can open later or close earlier. Entry to the covered market is free; purchases, tastings and guided tours cost separately. The L-shaped main arcade is on one level with broad gate thresholds, though crowds and shop displays narrow passage. Public toilets and food stalls are available in and around the adjoining Eminönü market streets. T1 tram and major bus routes stop at Eminönü. Walk beside the New Mosque to the bazaar gates; the Eminönü ferry terminals are across Ragıp Gümüşpala Caddesi.

The plan is an L: two vaulted arms meeting at a corner, lit from lunette windows set high in the barrel vault, with six gates letting into the streets around it. One of them carries the name Haseki Kapısı. Above one gate sits a two-storey chamber that once served as a court, where disputes between tradesmen, and between tradesmen and their customers, were settled on the spot. The hall holds a total of 85 shops. Yes under the regular daily schedule. T1 tram and major bus routes stop at Eminönü. Walk beside the New Mosque to the bazaar gates; the Eminönü ferry terminals are across Ragıp Gümüşpala Caddesi.

Allow forty-five minutes. That number comes from the shape of the building rather than from any published tour: it is one hall on two arms with a single main axis, and walking both arms once, at the pace of someone reading signs and stopping at three or four counters, uses up most of three quarters of an hour. This is not a half-day destination and should not be planned as one. It closes on 29 October and on the official days of the major religious holidays.

Open daily 08:00-19:30. The bazaar closes on 29 October and on the official days of the major religious holidays; individual traders can open later or close earlier. Prayer, maritime weather, conservation, security and dated events can replace ordinary access. Yes. The covered arcade is level, although dense crowds can reduce manoeuvring space.

Entry to the covered market is free; purchases, tastings and guided tours cost separately. The base amount and currency follow the official operator tariff. Transport, inner sections, evening programmes and separately operated venues remain excluded unless named. No. Individual traders set their own opening and closing times within the bazaar day.

T1 tram and major bus routes stop at Eminönü. Walk beside the New Mosque to the bazaar gates; the Eminönü ferry terminals are across Ragıp Gümüşpala Caddesi. Use the named gate, pier or stop because the historic peninsula, hills and controlled compounds can separate entrances and exits. Eminönü T1 tram stop and the Eminönü ferry piers are directly beside the market district.

The L-shaped main arcade is on one level with broad gate thresholds, though crowds and shop displays narrow passage. Public toilets and food stalls are available in and around the adjoining Eminönü market streets. Yes. There is no admission ticket. Yes under the regular daily schedule. It closes on 29 October and on the official days of the major religious holidays. Worship, shoe removal, crowds and historic surfaces remain relevant. Open daily 08:00-19:30. The bazaar closes on 29 October and on the official days of the major religious holidays; individual traders can open later or close earlier.

The picture that makes this building is the vault, not the merchandise. Stand at one end of an arm, get low enough that the arcade of arches stacks up towards the far gate, and let the lunette windows do the lighting; the beams that drop through them onto the floor at mid-morning are what everyone comes back with and they are worth the early start. Entry to the covered market is free; purchases, tastings and guided tours cost separately.