Istanbul

It rose as a cathedral in 537, a mosque, then a museum in 1935, and a mosque again in 2020. Visitors keep to the upper gallery and stay off the prayer floor. Sightseeing halts for the five daily prayers, and the rules change often, so check before you go.

Sultans lived here for close to four hundred years, and the palace runs through four courtyards, each open to fewer people than the last. The harem needs its own ticket. Its queue is not the treasury queue, so decide which you want first before going in.

A cistern dug in the 6th century to hold the city's water, on over three hundred columns. Two Medusa heads sit in the far corner, one on its side and one upside down, and nobody has settled why. Lights and art installations went in with the 2022 overhaul.

More than sixty covered lanes run off one another and the gates number about twenty, which makes finding the one you came in by harder than it sounds. It shuts on Sundays.

Mimar Sinan built this one past the age of sixty. It stands on the crown of a hill, so the Golden Horn shows over the courtyard wall. Sinan's own tomb is a small thing tucked outside that wall at the corner, and most visitors miss it.

Genoese builders put it up as a watchtower on their wall, and the top is now a viewing deck. There is one lift, so the queue is long and the last flight is on foot.

Skip the tour boat and take the commuter ferry out of Eminonu. It covers the same water for a fraction of the fare. Sailings change with the season and thin out in winter, so check the pier board before you plan around one.

Mosaics from the 14th century run across the walls and vaults, telling the Bible story panel by panel. It became a mosque in 2020, stayed shut for years, and opened again in 2024. Curtains cover the images at prayer times, and no visitors are admitted then.

Painted houses climb the slope in rows, and the photographers come for them. Jews, Greeks and Turks shared this quarter, so a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a mosque stand within a ten-minute walk. Steep streets mean much of the climbing is on steps.

A single red tram noses through the crowd along Istiklal Avenue between Taksim and Tunel.

Finished in 1617, it carries six minarets. The Iznik tiles lining the inside walls run to blue, hence the nickname. Visitors use a side door on the north, take off their shoes at the entrance and carry them around in a plastic bag.

This was the Byzantine chariot track, and the old surface lies about 2m below today's ground. An obelisk brought from Egypt and the Serpent Column taken from Delphi stand in a line. The serpents lost their heads long ago, so only the twisted body is left.

A covered market from the 17th century, bent into an L. Spice, dried fruit and lokum shops line both sides. Out along the lanes on its west side run the shops where locals buy cheese and olives, and prices there sit lower than inside.

A small mosque by Mimar Sinan from the 1560s, its interior thick with Iznik tiles. It sits on an upper floor above a row of shops and barely shows from the street. You reach the door by a narrow stone stair off a lane near the Spice Bazaar.

Dug around 430, it was found again in 2010. It is smaller than the Basilica Cistern, but projected light shows play across its thirty-two columns. Close to the Sultanahmet tram stop, its queue runs shorter than the Basilica's.

Built around 530 as the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, it is now a mosque. It predates the great Hagia Sophia and is often called a trial run for it. It sits in a quiet quarter down toward the sea, with few tourists and a tea garden in the courtyard.

A church rebuilt in 532 inside the first courtyard of Topkapi Palace. Never made a mosque, it served as an arsenal and is now a museum and concert venue. The walls are nearly bare, with one cross in the apse above the altar, and that emptiness is the sight.

Osman Hamdi Bey opened it in 1891, and the Alexander Sarcophagus from Sidon is the piece everyone comes for. You walk in up a sloping path between Topkapi's outer wall and Gulhane Park. Parts of its three buildings sometimes close, so read the notice board.

Carpets, calligraphy and pottery fill the palace of Ibrahim Pasha along the Hippodrome's western edge. Old rugs going back to the Seljuks make it a stop for people about to buy a carpet. From the upper windows the Blue Mosque faces you head on.

The sultans left Topkapi for this European-style palace on the Bosphorus shore in 1856. Ataturk died here in 1938, and the clocks in his room stand at 9:05, the time of his death. The seaside garden and the clock tower out front are the photo spots.

A summer palace from the 1860s on the Asian shore, right beneath the Bosphorus Bridge. It housed foreign guests, so it is smaller and quieter than Dolmabahce. Two pavilions in the waterfront garden open onto the strait.

Mehmed II threw up this fortress in 1452 at the narrowest point of the strait, ahead of taking Constantinople. Tradition puts the building time at a little over four months. Towers and walls climb the hillside, so the steps up are steep and the railings low.

A 19th-century baroque mosque right on the edge of a waterside square, with the Bosphorus Bridge crossing behind it. It is the classic frame of bridge and dome, so the pier fills at sunset. The lanes off the square are lined with kumpir potato stalls.

A small tower stands on a rock just off Uskudar. Restoration wrapped up and it reopened in May 2023, with an exhibition and a cafe inside. It lies about 200m offshore, so you cross on the small boats that leave from the Uskudar side.

A short walk from the Asian-side ferry pier, the market lanes pack together fish, pickle and cheese shops. Far fewer tourists come than to the European old town, so you watch locals at their shopping. A little south, the Moda promenade runs along the sea.

Buyukada is the largest of the nine islands in the Sea of Marmara. Private cars do not run, the horse carriages were scrapped in 2020, and people now get about by electric cart and bicycle. With ninety-odd minutes on the ferry, the outing eats the whole day.

Eyup Sultan Mosque, at the inner tip of the Golden Horn, is a shrine for Muslim pilgrims. On the cemetery hill behind it, a tea garden named after a French writer looks down the inlet. Ride the cable car beside the mosque up, and walk down between the graves.

A lodge of the Mevlevi order dating from the late 15th century, now a museum. The whirling ritual took place on its octagonal floor, and sema performances are still held here. A wall hides it near Tunel, at Istiklal's southern end.

The land walls of the 5th century run nearly 6km from the Sea of Marmara to the Golden Horn. Yedikule Fortress at the southern end went up in 1457 around seven towers. Many stretches are deserted, so walk a few chosen sections in daylight.

A private museum in a former hotel just off Istiklal, holding Ottoman-era paintings and ceramics. Its best-known work is Osman Hamdi Bey's The Tortoise Trainer. Many people pair it with a walk past the nearby Pera Palace Hotel.

Its new building on the Karakoy waterfront, designed by Renzo Piano, opened in 2023. It shows modern and contemporary Turkish art, and the roof terrace faces the old city over the water. Walking the shore from the Galata Bridge gets you there quickly.

It spans the mouth of the Golden Horn; the present bridge went up in 1994. Along the upper railings, anglers stand with their rods out all day long. The lower deck is lined with fish restaurants whose touts push hard, so settle the price before taking a seat.