Istanbul Trip Overview
Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul: no other city in the world has known so much glory under three different names. Three civilizations, three empires, three major religions. The SULTANAHMET district looks like a living museum.
Additional Info
Duration: 3 to 6 hours
Starts: Istanbul, Turkey
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
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What to Expect When Visiting Istanbul, Turkey, Turkey
Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul: no other city in the world has known so much glory under three different names. Three civilizations, three empires, three major religions. The SULTANAHMET district looks like a living museum.
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: Hagia Sophia Mosque, Sultan Ahmet, Ayasofya MeydanI No:1, Istanbul 34122 Turkey
Saint Sophia “Haghia Sophia” in Greek means “divine wisdom”, is an extraordinary architectural achievement from the 6th century. Built by Anthémios de Tralles and Isodore de Millet, it was inaugurated by Justinien and his wife Théodora (537). This Byzantine masterpiece has splendid mosaics with a gold background and colored marbles.
Justinian for the construction of the dome had ordered from Rhodes bricks of earth so light that twelve of them weighed no more than an ordinary brick, they bore the following inscription: “It is God who founded, God will help him. ” The Ottomans had transformed it into a mosque, then in 1935 it became a museum.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Blue Mosque, Sultanahmet Mah At Meydani Cad No 7, Istanbul 34122 Turkey
The Blue Mosque (1609-1616) is one of the most famous mosques in the world with six minarets, it owes its name to the ceramic tiles (around 20,000) from Iznik (Nicea) predominantly blue which line its interior walls. .
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Topkapi Palace, Cankurtaran Mahallesi Gulhane Park, Near Sultanahmet Square, Istanbul 34122 Turkey
The Palace of TOPKAPI has 4 different courtyards, it settled on 70ha before the construction of the railway network and was the residence of the sultans until the 19th century. For 4 centuries it was the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire. The Palace housed the headquarters of DIVAN, the main body of power. Its huge kitchen fed between 4 and 5 thousand people a day. Today the kitchen hosts a collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain. Its famous treasure, with the 86-carat “kasikçi” diamond, the gold chandeliers decorated with diamonds, the sultan’s thrones are witnesses to the rich history of the empire. In the 3rd courtyard of the palace is the hall of the relics of the prophet Mohammed, it is a holy place for Muslims. The kiosks in the 4th courtyard complete this architectural beauty of the palace. On these terraces, you have a breathtaking view of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus.
Duration: 3 hours
