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The Sultanahmet District - Home to Istanbul's most visited and famous sites

picture courtesy www.columbia.edu/

Istanbul's must see list includes a visit to the sights below, all within reasonable walking distance from one another. Undoubtedly you will be visiting at least one, if not all of the places, especially if you are on a tour or other hotel-led visiting type function.

That said, these places are also well crowded with circles of multi-linguistic tour guides echoing the various dates, histories, jokes, and the like. The park is also home to ubiquitous Turkish salesmen as well, but with a little weathering and a strong will you can get used to them.

If you are travelling apart from a tour group you can often listen in and learn quite a bit from the educated guides.

The Sultanahmet Meydani Park in the main area of Sultanahmet was known as the Hippodrome and was the site of bloody Byzantine sporting events and was based on the design of the infamous Circus Maximus in Rome. Nowadays it's a pleasant park where you can base your tour operations for all of the sites below. Be sure and check out the grandiose obelisk "brought" from Egypt and dating from 1500 BCE, as well as the wonderful Wilhelm II fountain which was constructed in Germany and brought to Istanbul for the emperor's visit in 1895. The fountain was built to show strength and unity between Germany and Turkey against WWI allies.

To know where to eat in the area, look at our Sultanahmet Restaurants page, with our three most recommended restaurants (instead of a bland list of 1001 phone numbers).

Sights to see around Meydani Park include (click on links to learn more about them):

Topkapi Palace

Aya Sofia (Hagia Sophia)

Sultan Ahmet Camii (the Blue Mosque)

the Hippodrome (described above)

Kapali Carsi (Covered Market)

Yerebatan Sarnici

Museum of Islamic Art

 

<---back to Istanbul for Visitors

 

 


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