Çatalca

It was built in 2001 and is the first miniature park in Istanbul (the world's largest miniature park in respect to its model area). The park hosts icons of many cultures and civilizations. Models vary from the Hagia Sophia to Galata Tower, from Safranbolu Houses to the Sumela Monastery in Trabzon, from Qubbat As-Sakhrah to the ruins of Mount Nemrut. In addition, some works that have not survived into the present, such as the Temple of Artemis, the Halicarnassus Mausoleum and Ajyad Castle, were recreated. All former Ottoman Empire in one place.

A historic house museum dedicated to the life of Adam Mickiewicz, renowned Polish poet. This is where he lived while in Turkey from September 1855 to 26 November 1855, when he died of illness.

A contemporary art museum in a building converted from an old power plant: 1914-built and coal-fired, this was the oldest in Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire. Part of the plant was kept in almost exact original condition and now serves as the "Energy Museum".

A remarkable Bulgarian Orthodox church better known as Demir Kilise, "Iron Church", as it's a cast iron prefab. The Bulgarians split from the Greek Orthodox and established their own wooden church in 1870, which burned down. The ground was too weak for a masonry or concrete structure so they opted for cast iron. The sections were cast in Vienna, shipped here and assembled, to open in 1898. The church was renovated in 2018, but the archpatriarchate building across the street remains a gaunt shell.

The building was erected as a Roman Catholic church in 1325 by the friars of the Dominican Order, near or above an earlier chapel dedicated to Saint Paul (Italian: San Paolo) in 1233. In 1299, the Dominican Friar Guillaume Bernard de Sévérac bought a house near the church, where he established a monastery with 12 friars. A new, much larger church was built near or above the chapel of San Paolo in 1325. Thereafter the church was officially dedicated to San Domenico. After the Fall of Constantinople, according to the Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire with the Republic of Genoa, the church, which by that time was known by the Turks under the name of Mesa Domenico, remained in Genoese hands, but between 1475 and 1478 it was transformed, with minor modifications, into a mosque by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II and became known as Galata Camii ("Galata Mosque") or Cami-i Kebir ("Great Mosque"). Towards the end of the century Sultan Bayezid II assigned the building to those Muslims of Spain (Andalusia) who had fled the Spanish Inquisition and migrated to Istanbul; hence the present name Arap Camii (Arab Mosque). Today, Arap Camii is the largest mosque on the Galata side of the Golden Horn. It is one of the most interesting mosques in the city due to its early Italian Gothic architectural style and church belfry, which has practically remained unaltered even after being converted into a minaret.

Istanbul's former Asia-side railway station nowadays has no trains, but is worth a look. It was built by the Germans in 1908 in a distinctive Teutonic-castle style - to make an impact on travellers from Asia about to step into Europe, and a counterpoint to Sirkeci station (also closed) on the European side which is modelled in Oriental style. It's intended eventually to make this the terminus for the high speed rail network.

A nice, organized museum with contemporary installations. It may be seen as overpriced given its small size. It also has a simple cafe.

A medieval citadel on the Bosphorus at the mouth of the Göksu creek. It was built in the late 14th century to control (polite word for "choke off") shipping along the Bosphorus, which narrows to 660 m at this point. It worked in tandem with Rumeli Citadel, built some 50 years later on the European bank. It fell into disrepair but was restored in the 1990s. You can't go in, but it's a pleasant setting; the entire village is named Anadolu Hisarı after the fort and has many traditional wooden houses (yalı). Ferries along the Bosphorus call here.

A private museum with a large painting collection and archaeological collections of measurement units and tools used in Asia Minor since antiquity and faiences of Kütahya.

Feshane began as a factory producing fezzes (fes), the red hats made of felt adopted by the Ottomans in the early 19th century as a part of westernizing efforts in lieu of much more traditional turbans. However, the fez was scrapped in favour of western garments during Atatürk's reforms of the 1920s and 30s as it was thought to symbolize the old, decidedly oriental regime. A restoration in 1998 made it a cultural and exhibition center, and after another in 2023, it was reopened as a culture and art center under the name Artistanbul Feshane.

The Byzantines built several great palaces in Constantinople and this is the only one to survive almost intact. It's from the late 13th century, in typical alternating marble and red-brick rows, and was an imperial residence: Porphyrogenitus means "born to the purple" indicating the heir to the crown. Yet it was merely an annex or pavilion within the much greater Palace of Blachernae, of which nothing else remains. It's set within the north end of the Theodosian Walls and was much bashed during the Ottoman capture. Later it was variously a menagerie, brothel, pottery, poorhouse and bottle works, then fell derelict in the 20th century. In 2021 it re-opened as a museum.

Although not at the size of Hagia Sophia, this is the largest active church in Turkey. It’s directly on Istiklal St, but somewhat hidden from view by its yard portal. Catholic Masses in Italian, Turkish, and English (in different days of the week).

Turkey was slow to protect its antiquities and to display them properly, but in 1867 Sultan Abdülaziz toured the museums of Paris, London and Vienna and saw what was needed. The main collection is in a grand neo-classical building of 1891, with two annexes for ancient art and Islamic art. Exhibits include Sumerian tablets, pieces of the wall of Babylon, Roman statues, and the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great, which he never lay in.

One of the icons of the city is also called the Leander's Tower, on a Bosphorus islet off Salacak. The local myth ascribes its name to a princess, whose father wanted to protect her in this offshore tower from a prophecy that she would be killed by a snakebite on her birthday, but the snake found its way inside a basket of fruits — ironically a birthday present from her father — and you've probably already guessed the rest of the story. In actual timeline, it served as a defensive structure (there was a wall connecting it to the Asian mainland, and the Byzantines used to stretch a chain from here to the European mainland across the mouth of the Bosphorus to shut it to adversary shipping in times of conflict, but they didn't during the final Ottoman siege in 1453), as a customs and quarantine station, as a lighthouse, as a warehouse of various sorts of goods, and as a high-end restaurant before the last restoration finished in 2023 dedicated it as a museum. There is a light show viewable from the mainland every day at 21:00.

Vast underground cistern built by Justinian in 532 to store the city's water, the largest and best-known of the hundreds constructed. It's a cathedral-like space with 336 richly decorated columns. Time was you explored in a little rowing boat, but tourist numbers have soared and water levels have dropped, so now you follow a boardwalk, with lights, piped music and art installations. It's sometimes a film location, and stages concerts. But the crowds rob it of atmosphere and you might prefer to seek out one of the less-visited cisterns.

Situated on the gentle hill overlooking the neighbourhood of Emirgan and the Bosphorus, Emirgan Park was for long the only place in the city where Istanbulites can admire the beauty of tulips. Having lost that distinction since the first decade of the 2000s as tulips are now everywhere, this is still a beautiful park with artificial ponds, small waterfalls, and impressive views of the Bosphorus. There are also cafes with open-air sections housed in pleasant former imperial hunting manors. Squirrels are there, too, in the middle of this metropolis of more than 15 million people, though you may have to look a bit deeper (or a bit upper on the branches!) to spot them.