Nuruosmaniye Mosque

A profusion of carpets, rugs, calligraphy, pottery, Qu'rans and other manuscripts. The museum is housed in the Palace of Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha (1495–1536), who was grand vizier to Suleiman the Magnificent, and the best of pals till Suleiman had him murdered.

It was built by the Genoese in the 14th century on the city walls of Galata, marking the highest point of their territory. Ride an elevator and take two flights of stairs to the top, then walk the parapet for a 360°-view of Istanbul, including the entire Sultanahmet peninsula: crowned by Topkapı Palace, the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. A beautiful spot worthy of a lot of pictures.

Completed in 1851, this houses a mantle said to have been worn by the prophet Muhammad. The mantle is displayed during Ramadan.

An attractive stairway mixing the Neo-Baroque and early Art Nouveau styles, climbing up from Bankalar St towards the Galata Tower. It was built in the 1870s by Abraham Salomon Camondo, who belonged to a prominent Ottoman-Venetian Jewish family of financiers and philanthropists.

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.

Sokollu Mehmet Pasha was the grand vizier and de facto ruler of the Ottoman Empire during its 16th century golden age. He commissioned this mosque, one of three in the city to bear his name, but the sloping site was a challenge. He hired the best, Mimar Sinan, who completed it in 979 AH / 1571 AD, with the slope resolved by a fronting courtyard above shops and a medrese. The interior has outstanding İznik blue tiles, and three fragments of the Black Stone (Hajar al-Aswad) of the Kaaba: above the main entrance, minbar and mihrab.

The defining image of Istanbul, dominating the skyline with its great dome and six minarets. Completed in 1617 for Sultan Ahmed I, it's still a working mosque, so dress appropriately and avoid prayer times. Enter via the courtyard on the SW side. You step (shoeless) into the blue-tiled prayer hall beneath the main dome and its semi-domes. The mihrab is of finely carved marble, well-lit, and the minbar (pulpit) next to it is visible from almost all parts.

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.

On top of a hill overlooking the Golden Horn, this is a magnificent mosque built by Sinan in the 1550s. It was centrepiece of a large külliye, a religious complex which included madrasas, a public kitchen and a hospital.. The small cemetery east has the mausoleums of Suleiman the Magnificent and of his wife Hurrem Sultan or Roxelana.

Started in 1613 by the Ottoman sultan Ahmet I (r. 1603–1617, who also had the Blue Mosque in the Old City built), and extensively renovated by the art-loving Selim III (r. 1789–1807), this sole building, which itself has the distinction of being the only intact structure that dates back to the rule of Ahmet III (r. 1703–1730), set inside a beautiful garden of pools and mature cedar and magnolia trees is the only remaining part of what was once the fourth largest palatial complex in Istanbul, extending all the way to the banks of the Golden Horn (which is now occupied by the derelict buildings of the closed shipyard, which also block part of the view towards the shore). According to the local rumour, its name (which in Turkish means "mirrored poplar") derives from the now absent mirrors gifted by Venice to the palace that were presumably "as tall as the poplars" (aynalar kavak). The highly decorative and colourful interior includes several rooms of original furnitures fit for a sultan, some of which are covered with nacre, and walls embellished with Ottoman poems praising the palace and Selim III. Downstairs is a small museum dedicated to music, which exhibit some of the instruments (violins, ouds, and kamanchehs) and gramophone records owned by Fatma Gevheri Sultana (1904–1980), the granddaughter of Abdülaziz I (r. 1861–1876). While you are outside, also check out the old main entrance (now closed) towards the Golden Horn, topped by a dome. Worth the half hour spent there.

A neighbourhood east of Şişli known for its Art Nouveau apartment buildings, the ground floors of many of which are upmarket restaurants, cafes, pubs, and garment stores lining the sidewalks. Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, well-known Turkish novelist, is a lifelong resident of the neighbourhood which formed the background of several of his novels.

A resort on the Marmara coast. It's the westernmost part of Istanbul, between Çatalca and the province of Tekirdağ. There are some remnants of the Anastasian wall here, the scrappy ruins of a castle, an ancient cistern, the Piri Paşa Mosque, and Uzunköprü the long aqueduct.

The Golden Gate was the ceremonial entrance through the Theodosian city walls. After the Ottomans captured the city in 1453, Mehmed II needed a stronghold for his treasures and documents. The gate was therefore bricked up and the walls reinforced into a fortress, with valuables stored in its seven towers, hence yedi kule. In the following century the treasury moved to Topkapi Palace and the fort became a prison for high-level detainees - Osman II was strangled here in 1622. It remained in use until 1837, whereupon the Golden Gate was re-opened.

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.