Istanbul

Of this majestic imperial city, whose historical areas were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985, the legendary British writer Jan Morris wrote that “In all European travel there is no spectacle more tremendous than the sight of Istanbul massed beside the sea – a solidification of history, jumbled houses and docks and palaces along the shore, mighty domes and soaring minarets, ships and ferries swarming everywhere, rumbling traffic over terrific bridges – a timeless metropolis, familiar to travelers for a thousand years.” The Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus, flows between the commercial center of Karaköy and Sarayburnu, or the Old Seraglio Point promontory that’s home to the Topkapi Palace, Sultanahmet Square and many important monuments. Opposite the Golden Horn and adjacent to Karaköy is the old district of Pera, settled by Genoese and Venetians in the 12th century and home of the iconic Galata Tower, built by the Genoese. The ornate Dolmabahçe Palace, formerly as sultan’s palace and now a museum, is on the European side of the Bosphorus, in a historic area of mansions and elegant yali, or waterfront wooden villas. A boat excursion along the Bosphorus is a great way to experience this visual pageantry. The Boğaziçi Bridge looms over the neo-Baroque style Ortaköy Mosque and spans more than 5,000 feet across the Bosphorus.

Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, ordered Saint Sophia to be built in 347AD as an imperial church, and with 50 tons of gold, multicolored marble and upwards of 170 pillars from other temples (including those in Athens and Ephesus) it opened 16 years later—only to be twice destroyed by fire before Justinian the Great rebuilt it in 552. For more than a thousand years it was the center of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity, before Mehmet the Conqueror had the huge structure with its signature colossal dome converted to a mosque in 1453. In 1935 the Hagia Sophia has converted yet again, this time to a museum, and many of the original Byzantine mosaics such as the one depicting the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus and Constantine and Justinian standing on either side have been faithfully restored. The cathedral-sized Basilica Cistern is an elaborate underground network of cisterns built by some 7,000 slaves during the Early Roman period to supply water to the Great Palace (and later to Topkapi Palace). Its spectacular array of vaulted roofs and floodlit columns lie less than 500 feet southwest of the Hagia Sophia.

Imperial Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan put his stamp on the Istanbul cityscape by building more than 300 structures during the reign of three sultans, including Suleiman the Magnificent who commissioned the Süleymaniye Mosque in 1550. Sinan completed it seven years later, and the mosque’s main dome, several smaller domes, four soaring minarets and graceful interior make it one of the most impressive of Istanbul’s religious sites. The mosque is located on the Third Hill of Istanbul, west of Sultanahmet Square but still within the city’s ancient walls.