Topkapı Palace

Not a palace in the European sense of one large building, but four courtyards of pavilions, kitchens, treasuries and gardens on the headland where the Golden Horn meets the Bosphorus. The Ottoman court ran from here for nearly four hundred years, and the site was chosen for the view, which is still the best thing in it.

What it costs

Ticketed, in the upper band of Istanbul prices for foreign visitors. The Harem is a separate ticket on top of the main one, and so is Hagia Irene in the first courtyard. Buy the Harem at the same time — going back out to buy it later means queueing twice.

The first courtyard, the big park you walk through from the Imperial Gate, is free and open to anyone. You can see Hagia Irene’s exterior and the gate itself without a ticket at all.

When to go

It has a weekly closing day — confirm which before you build a day around it, because it has changed. Go at opening: the Treasury and the Harem are the two bottlenecks and both are far better before the tour groups reach them.

Allow three hours. People routinely allow one and see a third of it.

Getting there

Sultanahmet or Gülhane on the T1 tram. From Gülhane you walk up through the park, which is the pleasanter approach and slightly shorter than it looks.

If you only have an hour

Skip the Treasury queue and go straight to the fourth courtyard. The terrace there looks down the Bosphorus over the point where two seas and two continents meet, and it is free of the crowds that stack up indoors. Then the Baghdad Kiosk on the same terrace.

What people get wrong

Expecting Versailles. It is a compound of small, low, exquisite rooms and a lot of outdoors, and if you are looking for one grand set-piece interior you will be disappointed by a place that was never trying to be that.

And underestimating the Harem. It is a separate ticket and a separate queue, it is the best part of the palace, and people skip it because it is extra.