Sultanahmet core: Hagia Sophia to Little Hagia Sophia
2.5km
5 hEasy
8stops
The Byzantine and Ottoman heart of the city on foot: palace, two great mosques, the Hippodrome and two cisterns, finishing downhill at the quieter Little Hagia Sophia.
Best time: Start at 08:30-09:00 on any day except Tuesday (Topkapı closed) or Friday midday (mosques closed to visitors)
Harem first, then Treasury and Baghdad Kiosk terrace; 2.5-3 h
Ottoman sultans' palace for nearly 400 years. Prioritise the Harem's tiled rooms, the Imperial Treasury (Topkapı dagger, Spoonmaker's Diamond), the Sacred Relics chamber and the…
In Topkapı's outer courtyard, included in the ticket; 15 min
One of the few Byzantine churches never converted to a mosque; its bare brick interior, iconoclast-era apse cross and atrium give a sense of a 6th-century church without later…
The 6th-century Byzantine cathedral, a mosque again since 2020. Foreign visitors enter a separate route to the upper galleries, where the Deesis mosaic and the imperial portrait…
Justinian's 6th-century underground reservoir with 336 columns, reopened in 2022 after restoration with lighting and art installations. Walk to the far corner for the two…
The Byzantine chariot-racing ground, now a square. See the Egyptian Obelisk of Thutmose III on its 4th-century carved base, the bronze Serpent Column from Delphi and the 1900…
In the 16th-century palace of Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha on the Hippodrome. The carpet collection (Seljuk and Ottoman 'Holbein' and 'Lotto' carpets) is among the best anywhere…
Enter from the Hippodrome side outside prayer times; 20 min
Early 17th-century imperial mosque with six minarets; inside, look up at the more than 20,000 blue-and-white Iznik tiles and the cascade of semi-domes. Reopened in April 2023…
Walk downhill through Küçük Ayasofya; tea in the courtyard; 20 min
The 6th-century Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, a prototype for Hagia Sophia, now a mosque. See the original Greek dedicatory frieze around the gallery; the courtyard has a…
