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City guide · Türkiye
Places to visit in Istanbul, Türkiye — page 3
Two continents, three empires and one strait that everything else is arranged around. The old capital rewards a plan: the great monuments sit within a twenty-mi...
Two continents, three empires and one strait that everything else is arranged around. The old capital rewards a plan: the great monuments sit within a twenty-minute walk of each other in Fatih, and almost everything else is a ferry ride away.
September · September in Istanbul has mean high 25.0°C, mean low 15.5°C, rainfall 44.3 mm, and 6.1 rain days. Mild temperatures and lower rainfall favour ferry rides and walking districts. September supports a full day of outdoor stops in Istanbul.
Near the Sarayburnu end of Gülhane Park, well away from the gate most visitors use, a single fluted shaft with a Corinthian capital stands among the trees carrying a Latin inscription: FORTVNAE REDVCI OB DEVICTOS GOTHOS — to Fortuna, who…
A single granite column stands in a small railed square off Kıztaşı Caddesi in Fatih, and almost everybody who has heard of Istanbul has never heard of it.
Gülhane Park is 9.7 hectares of shaded slope below Topkapı Palace, and for most of its life it was not a park at all but the palace's outer garden — ground the public did not enter.
The Monument of Liberty is an Ottoman-era memorial in Şişli commemorating the officers and soldiers who died putting down the countercoup of 31 March 1909 against the Young Turk constitutional government, an episode known in Turkish as the 31 Mart…
Çiçek Pasajı is a covered arcade off İstiklal Caddesi in Beyoğlu, built in 1876 to the design of the architect Kleanthis Zannos and opened as the Cité de Péra.
The Tiled Kiosk, Çinili Köşk, is the oldest non-religious Ottoman building in Istanbul and the odd one out among the city's Ottoman monuments: it does not look Ottoman.
The Istanbul Naval Museum was founded in 1897 by Bozcaadali Hasan Husnu Pasha, then Ottoman Minister of the Navy, which makes it the first military museum established in Turkey.
Yıldız Park is a wooded hillside of 368,751 square metres — roughly thirty-seven hectares — climbing from the Beşiktaş shoreline to the ridge behind it.
The Column of Arcadius is one of Constantinople's lost monuments, and what is left of it is the reason to come: a stump of imperial propaganda wedged between apartment blocks in Fatih.
This is a museum that used to be somebody's house, and the house has an unusually crowded guest list. From 1848 to 1884 the Emirgan mansion passed through a succession of high-ranking pasha families and Egyptian khedives.
The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews tells the story of a community that has been in this city far longer than most of the monuments around it.
Bodrum Mosque is the church of the Myrelaion, built around 920 by Romanos I Lekapenos as the chapel of his own palace, and it is one of the very few tenth-century churches of Constantinople still standing.
The Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam is a twin bathhouse commissioned by Hürrem Sultan, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, and designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan, built starting in 1556 between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.
District boundaries come from OSM administrative relations, so a district page holds exactly the places inside it — plus, for the islands and the coast, the nearest district by proximity.
South of the Horn, in Fatih, the monumental core is walkable end to end: Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern and Topkapı sit inside one square kilometre.
North of the Horn, Beyoğlu climbs from Karaköy to Taksim and is where the city eats and drinks late. Across the Bosphorus, Kadıköy and Üsküdar are residential, cheaper and reached best by ferry rather than by bridge.
One contactless card covers tram, metro, funicular, bus and ferry, and it is the only ticket most visitors need.
The T1 tram threads the monumental core; the M2 metro crosses the Horn to Taksim. Ferries are the fastest way between the European and Asian sides and cost the same as a tram ride. Traffic on the bridges is unpredictable enough that a taxi is rarely faster.
Three days covers the monumental core in Fatih without rushing. Five lets you add Beyoğlu, a Bosphorus ferry and one of the Asian-side neighbourhoods.
Can visitors enter the mosques?
Yes, outside prayer times. Shoulders and knees should be covered, shoes come off at the door, and women cover their hair; scarves are lent at the larger mosques.
Is the Bosphorus cruise worth it?
The scheduled public ferry runs the same water as the tourist cruises for a fraction of the fare, and stops at neighbourhoods you can walk around before catching the next one back.
Which side should you stay on?
Fatih puts you inside walking distance of the monuments. Beyoğlu is livelier at night and still two tram stops away. The Asian side is cheaper and quieter but adds a ferry to every sightseeing day.
When is the city least crowded?
April to June and September to October are warm without the July heat or the cruise-ship peak. January and February are cold and wet but the queues disappear.
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