TURKEY Istanbul - Covered Bazaar See Before You Die

Place ID

Covered Bazaar

Region:	Middle East
Country:	Turkey
City:	Istanbul

Description

The Covered Bazaar offers the visitor a multitude of shops. It dates back to the 14th century and was built under the order of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror. It has been expanded several times over the centuries until it was destroyed totally by an earthquake in 1894. Already in 1898 works to rebuilt the Bazaar started, but later several fires made it necessary to renovate it in the middle of the last century.
Today it is regarded as one of the most important tourist attractions in the city and offers the visitor a maze of 61 streets and more than 3000 shops within the building for shopping and haggling. For easier orientation within the bazaar all streets follow a grid-like system and often shopkeepers have grouped themselves together, so there will be a "gold-street" where most of the jewellery shops can be found, another one for carpets, leather items and so on.
The Bazaar can be entered from 8 different main gates which are all located near other main tourist locations such as the Nuruosmaniye Mosque, Çemberlitas or the University of the City of Istanbul. The entrance that is easiest to find is the Nuruosmaniye Gate, which is located in Beyazit, right next to the tram station with the same name.
There are toilets, restaurants and cafe shops within the building.