Grand Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar is a vast, labyrinthine network of more than sixty covered streets defined by its vaulted ceilings and thick stone walls. Established in fourteen sixty-one by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, it began as a secure vault for precious metals and important documents to generate revenue for the Hagia Sophia. These original stone structures, known as bedestens, served as the fortified core around which the marketplace expanded over the following centuries.