Archive for: October 2007

As mentioned earlier, The Treasury is the most popular part of the Topkapi Palace Museum for most visitors.  It holds the most amazing and richest collection of its kind in the world.  Anywhere else …

As you enter the Second Courtyard, you will find the Royal Kitchen with twenty chimneys. When the kitchens were functional, there were over a thousand cooks plus assistants, preparing and serving meals for …

The Second Courtyard of Topkapi Palace includes the Kitchens and the Porcelain collection, including one of the world’s richest collection of Chinese porcelain.

The Silk Road is noted through history as the route of cultural and commerical contacts between …

Topkapi Palace was the residence of the Ottoman sultans from the 15th to 19th centuries.  When Sultan Mehmet conquered Istanbul in 1453, he made Istanbul the capital of his empire.  His first palace was set …

The current Galata bridge which was constructed in December 1994, links Karaköy and Eminönü.  Prior to this, there was a floating bridge, which unfortunately was badly damaged in a fire in 1992 and subsequently towed up …

The Old Town is the historical settlement which has been called Byzantium, or at other times, New or Second Rome, …

Sultan Ahmet Square is the central point around which many of Istanbul’s historical and interesting sites can be found, such as the Hippodrome, Blue Mosque …

Just opposite from the Blue Mosque is the famous Pudding Shop, also known as the Lale Restaurant.  Two brothers, Idris and Namik Colpan, opened the Lale Pastahanesi in 1957.  The Pudding Shop …

The Egyptian Spice market is the oldest bazaar in Istanbul.  After the Grand Bazaar, the Egyptian Spice Market is the second largest covered market.  It was named Mısır Çarşısı or Egyptian Bazaar because …

Construction of the Hippodrome began in 203 AD by the Emperor Septimus Severus and it was then enlarged by Constantine the Great. It was completed in 335 AD when Constantine declared Istanbul the new Roman city …