Topkapı Palace

Topkapı was the seat of the Ottoman empire for nearly four centuries. Mehmed the Conqueror ordered it begun in 1459, six years after taking Constantinople, and it was the sultans' main residence and administrative centre from the 1460s until Dolmabahçe was finished in 1853. It is not a palace in the European sense of one great building. It is a walled compound of courtyards, pavilions and service buildings covering somewhere between 592,600 and 700,000 m² on the point of the historic peninsula, laid out so that each courtyard admitted fewer people than the last.

Four courtyards, and the further in you go the fewer people were ever allowed. The First Courtyard is the outer precinct, where visitors and officials gathered before the Gate of Salutation. The Second, finished around 1465 and given its present form between about 1525 and 1529, holds the imperial kitchens, the stables, the Janissary quarters and the Imperial Council. The Third is the inner court: the Audience Chamber, the treasury, the library and the officials' quarters. The Fourth is the most private, a set of kiosks and pavilions for the sultan alone.

Three hours for the palace, and four if you take the Harem. The four courtyards alone are an hour and a half of walking. The Treasury takes half an hour and queues. The Harem's 400-odd rooms take an hour on their own and are a separate ticket and a separate entrance. This is the one Sultanahmet building that cannot be combined with the others in a morning. Give it a half day and put Hagia Sophia on a different one.

Open Wednesday-Monday 09:00-17:00; closed Tuesday. Ticket desks close at 17:00, and individual rooms may stop admitting visitors earlier for conservation or crowd control. Prayer, maritime weather, conservation, security and dated events can replace ordinary access.

The combined Palace, Harem and Hagia Irene ticket is TRY 2,750 for foreign visitors and TRY 500 for domestic visitors. Children aged 0-6 enter free; Harem and Hagia Irene have separate ticket rules and are excluded from standard Müzekart access. Transport, inner sections, evening programmes and separately operated venues remain excluded unless named.

Use T1 tram to Gülhane or Sultanahmet, then enter through the Imperial Gate on Babıhümayun Caddesi. The palace lies inside the pedestrian historic peninsula and has no public visitor parking at the gate. Use the named gate, pier or stop because the historic peninsula, hills and controlled compounds can separate entrances and exits.

Courtyards have mostly step-free routes and accessible toilets, but cobbles, steep ramps, thresholds and stairs restrict several historic rooms, Treasury sections and parts of the Harem. Manual wheelchairs require assistance on gradients. Worship, shoe removal, crowds and historic surfaces remain relevant. Open Wednesday-Monday 09:00-17:00; closed Tuesday. Ticket desks close at 17:00, and individual rooms may stop admitting visitors earlier for conservation or crowd control.

The Fourth Courtyard is where the camera earns its place: the terraces look over the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and the Asian side from the highest point of the old city. Inside the pavilions and the Treasury, photography restrictions vary by room and are signed; the Privy Chamber with the sacred relics is the strictest. Follow the signs rather than the crowd. The courtyards are bright and the interiors are dark, which is the same dynamic-range problem Hagia Sophia sets. Expose for the interior and accept the blown doorway.