Hagia Irene is a large, domed structure of brick and stone located within the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace. It holds the title of the first church built in Constantinople, commissioned in the fourth century by Emperor Constantine the…
Sultanahmet Historic Heart
Walk through the monumental center of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, tracing the historic heart of Istanbul where world-famous architectural wonders stand side by side.
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1. Hagia Irene
2. Soğuk Çeşme Sokak
Soğuk Çeşme Sokak is a narrow, cobblestone passage wedged between the high walls of Topkapı Palace and the towering mass of the Hagia Sophia. You can recognize this street by its row of two and three-story wooden houses, each featuring…
3. Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque
The Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque is defined by a massive central dome that appears to float above the structure. Designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, the building was completed in five hundred…
4. Hurrem Sultan Hammam
The Hurrem Sultan Hammam is recognizable by its long, symmetrical stone and brick exterior, stretching seventy-five meters between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Completed in fifteen fifty-six, this bathhouse was commissioned by…
5. The Stone of Million
The Stone of Million consists of a solitary, weathered pillar located near the entrance to the Basilica Cistern. This stone fragment represents the remains of a fourth-century monument that functioned as the zero-mile marker for the…
6. Basilica Cistern
The Basilica Cistern is a vast underground chamber featuring three hundred thirty-six marble columns that rise directly from the water. Commissioned by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian the First in the sixth century, this structure was…
7. German Fountain
You can recognize the German Fountain by its bright, eight-sided green dome, which sits atop eight dark stone columns in the northern end of Sultanahmet Square. This neo-Byzantine gazebo was a gift from the German Emperor Wilhelm the…
8. Obelisk of Theodosius
The Obelisk of Theodosius is a towering column of pink Aswan granite, capped by hieroglyphics that were carved in Egypt during the fifteenth century before the common era. It stands upon an ornate marble pedestal in the middle of a wide,…
9. The Blue Mosque
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is recognizable by the six slender minarets that surround its cascade of domes. Commissioned by Sultan Ahmed the First and completed in sixteen sixteen, the building was designed by the architect Sedefkar Mehmed…