OTTOMAN CLASSICS TOUR (FULL DAY)

This is a Full Day Group Tour that runs everyday in Istanbul. Tour starts at09.00 from Sultanahmet. If you want we can send our free shuttle service to pick you up from you hotel in Sultanahmet.

HAGIA SOPHIA, now known as the Ayasofya Museum, was an early Christian Church, and later an Eastern Orthodox Church which was transformed into a mosque on 1453 by Turks, and converted into a Museum in 1935 is regularly considered one of the greatest and most beautifull buildings in history.

BLUE MOSQUE, (Sultanahmet) The mosque is famously known with this name fort he blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. It was built between 1609-1616 by order of Sultan Ahmed I, after whom its named. The mosque is located in the oldest part of İstanbul, in what was before 1453 the centre of Constantinople, the capital of Byzantine Empire.

HIPPODROME, The tree-lined square is between Santa Sophia and Blue Mosque. Had a room for around fifty thousand spectators. The Serpentine Column and the Theodosius's Obelisk places there.

TURKISH AND ISLAMIC ART MUSEUM, Constructed in 1524, the building was formerly the palace of Ibrahim Pasa, who was the first Grand Vizier to Suleyman the Magnificent. The collection includes notable examples of Islamic calligraphy, tiles and rugs as well as ethnographic displays on various cultures in Turkey.

GRAND BAZAAR, is the one of the largest covered markets in the world with more than 58 streets and 4000 shops. It is well known for its jewelry, pottery, spice and carpet shops.
We will drop you at the bazaar on your own at the end of the tour so you can take your time and shop there as long as you want.

LUNCH in a traditioanal Turkish restaurant in Sultanahmet area with a set meal.

TOPKAPI PALACE, literally the "Cannongate Palace" named after a nearby gate, was the administrative center of the Otoman Empire from 1465 to 1853. The construction of the Topkapı Palace was ordered by Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror in 1459 and it was completed in 1465.

SULEYMANIYE MOSQUE, considered the most beautifull and sumtuous of Istanbul's mosque, reflects the glory and power of the Otoman Empire and erudite Sultan, Suleyman known as the Magnificent or Kanuni the Legislator.

Topkapı Palace is closed on Tuesdays so that replaces afternoon as below.

CHORA CHURCH (Kariye), is considered to be one of the most beautifull examples of a Byzantine Church. Cnora Church was originally built outside the walss of the Constantinople, to the South of the Golden Horn. Its full name was the Church of the Holy Saviour in the Country. The original church on this site was built in the early 5th century.

ANCIENT CITY WALLS, we will drive along the Walls of Constantinople which are a series of sone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople since its founding as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire by Constantine the Great to the present day. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they are one the greatest and most complex fortification systems ever built.

EYÜP MOSQUE & DISTRICT, the name comes from Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and the standart bearer of the Prophet Muhammed. His resting place was venerated during the Byzantine times but after the Latin Rampage through Istanbul in the Fourth Cruscade fell into an unkempt state, along with many other Byzantine holy places. Seven centuties later, during the conquest of Constantinople, the tomb was re-discovered by Ak Şemsettin.

For more information regarding the Full Day Byzantine Tour please send us an e-mail.