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Landmarks & Sights

GÖRÜLECEK YERLER

Sixteen Istanbul sights, one page each, free ones first — because ten of the sixteen cost nothing to walk into.

Hagia Sophia framed between bare plane trees at dusk, its dome and minarets catching the last light
Photograph by Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Sixteen places, one page each. They are ordered the way this site argues the city works: the 10 that cost nothing first, the 6 you buy a ticket for after.

That order is not a stylistic choice. In Prague or Vienna the admissions are the budget and the streets are free decoration. Istanbul inverts it. Its greatest buildings are working mosques, they charge nothing, and the price of entry is behaving like a guest — covering up, taking your shoes off, and staying outside during prayer. What is ticketed is priced for foreign visitors in euros and sits among the most expensive sightseeing in Europe.

The one entry below that is not a building is the ferry, and it is the one to do first. It is not a tour. It is the bus, on the same card as the tram, and it gives you the view that the ticketed towers charge for.

The courtyard of the Blue Mosque at dusk, the arcade lit from within and the domes stacked above itThe Blue MosqueFree · a working mosqueThe Suleymaniye Mosque on its terrace, the great dome stepping down to half-domes, with visitors on the pathThe Süleymaniye MosqueFree · the best terrace in the cityA vaulted lane of the Grand Bazaar crowded with shoppers, shopfronts on both sides under the painted archesThe Grand BazaarFree · closed SundaysThe Spice Bazaar's painted vault above a dense crowd, the L-shaped hall running away in both directionsThe Spice BazaarFree · open SundaysOrtakoy Mosque at the water's edge with the Bosphorus Bridge rising directly behind itOrtaköy MosqueFree · under the bridgeIstiklal Avenue packed shoulder to shoulder with people, the street running away between tall facadesİstiklal AvenueFree · and very fullThe Obelisk of Theodosius standing in the open square of the Hippodrome, minarets behind itThe HippodromeFree · always openA terrace of Balat houses painted in bright blue, yellow and orange, stepping up the hillBalatFree · a neighbourhood, not a siteA commuter ferry crossing in front of Hagia Sophia, the old city rising behind itThe Bosphorus FerryFree-ish · it is the busThe Maiden's Tower on its islet with the old city and its minarets on the skyline behindThe Maiden's TowerFree to see · ticketed to landHagia Sophia seen from the park on a clear day, its grey dome and four white minarets above the treesHagia SophiaTicketed upstairs, free downstairsThe Gate of Salutation at Topkapi Palace, its two conical towers flanking the entrance, with visitors queuingTopkapı PalaceTicketed · Harem extraThe Basilica Cistern's forest of columns receding into the dark, lit orange and reflected in shallow waterThe Basilica CisternTicketed · timed entryThe long white façade of Dolmabahce Palace along the Bosphorus, ornamented in carved stoneDolmabahçe PalaceTicketed · guided route onlyThe Galata Tower rising above the packed rooftops of Beyoglu, the Golden Horn behindThe Galata TowerTicketed · the queue is the problemThe exterior of the Chora church, its brick domes and single minaret against a blue skyThe Chora ChurchTicketed · out on its own

Photographs from Wikimedia Commons; each sight page carries its own photographer, licence and link.

Free first

The sixteen sight pages on this site are ordered with the free ones first, and that is an argument rather than a filing convention. Ten of the sixteen cost nothing to walk into. The great mosques — the Blue Mosque, Süleymaniye, Ortaköy — charge no admission because mosques do not, and they are among the finest buildings in the world.

What you actually pay for

The ticketed six are Topkapı, Dolmabahçe, the Basilica Cistern, Chora, the Galata Tower and the upper gallery at Hagia Sophia. Turkish state sites price foreign visitors separately and in euros, and those prices have risen sharply. Work out which of them you actually want rather than buying all six because they are on a list.

The one that is not a building

The Bosphorus ferry has a page here alongside the monuments, because it belongs there. It is the cheapest and the best sightseeing in the city and it is ordinary public transport.

Where they are

Eight of the sixteen are within twenty minutes' walk of the Sultanahmet tram stop, which is why so many trips never leave that square. The other eight are the ones worth the journey: Süleymaniye on the next hill, Galata and İstiklal across the Golden Horn, Dolmabahçe and Ortaköy up the Bosphorus, Chora out by the land walls, Balat along the water, and the Maiden's Tower on the Asian side.

What is a reconstruction and what is not

Almost nothing here is. Hagia Sophia's dome has been rebuilt twice, in the sixth century and the tenth, but the building is the building. The Ottoman mosques are original. The Basilica Cistern's lighting is new and its columns are sixth-century. The one honest caveat is Chora, where a great deal of what you see was uncovered and consolidated by twentieth-century restorers rather than found intact.

How much time each one takes

Most take less than you think. The Basilica Cistern is twenty-five minutes. A mosque is twenty. The Hippodrome is ten. Topkapı is the outlier at three hours, and Dolmabahçe runs on a fixed guided route of about an hour. Plan around the two long ones and the rest will fit.

This section is being written. The guide above is the section for now. New articles are published across the site about twice a week rather than a section being filled in a day, so this page grows steadily — it is worth looking in again. In the meantime the sixteen sight pages and the plans by trip length are finished, and they are the best place to start.

Coming next in this section

  • What is genuinely free in Istanbul, and what only sounds free
  • The Istanbul Museum Pass: counting whether it pays
  • Which viewpoints cost money and which do not