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Istanbul’s Historic Peninsula Landmarks

Istanbul’s Historic Peninsula Landmarks

Istanbul · Turkey

14 stops5.9 km1 h 11 min
  • Audio guide
  • 4 languages
  • Quizzes
  • Offline

Walk through Istanbul’s historic peninsula, moving from Galata and traditional markets to landmark mosques, public squares, and former royal spaces. Along the way, you will see how commerce, worship, ceremony, and government are represented by the stops in this carefully ordered route. The walk is worth taking for its concentrated view of Istanbul’s built heritage, from the Basilica Cistern and Ayasofya to Topkapı Sarayı.

The walk

Stops 1–6 of 14. The rest are in the app.

  1. Galata

    Galata

    Galata is Istanbul’s old Genoese quarter, shaped by trade, privilege, and rising streets.

  2. Egyptian Bazaar

    Egyptian Bazaar

    Egyptian Bazaar, an attraction in Istanbul, Turkey

  3. Grand Bazaar

    Grand Bazaar

    A city-sized market born from two fifteenth-century bedestens and still trading under one roof.

  4. 8 more stops on this walk, in the app
  5. Grand Bazaar

    Grand Bazaar

    A living Ottoman market whose streets grew from two fifteenth-century covered halls.

  6. Cemberlitas Hammam

    Cemberlitas Hammam

    A working Ottoman bathhouse whose profits funded royal charity, and whose domes survived fire, earthquakes, and urban change.

  7. Little Hagia Sophia Mosque

    Little Hagia Sophia Mosque

    A sixth-century Byzantine church that became a mosque, still carrying Justinian’s name in its columns.

  8. Stop 7

  9. Stop 8

  10. Stop 9

  11. 8 more stops in the app

Data: OpenStreetMap contributors and Google Places

More walks in Istanbul

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How a walk works

8 more stops in the app

This page shows the first 6 of 14 stops. The rest of the walk, and the guide who narrates it, are in the app.

  1. Pick a walk

    Every stop is a real place, already in walking order.

  2. Pocket your phone

    Follow the line on the live map, or download the walk before you lose signal.

  3. Listen as you arrive

    On a narrated walk the story starts on its own at each stop, so your eyes stay on the place.

See the whole walk in the app

Free to install · Every city’s featured walk is free, start to finish.

  • A guide who talks

    Narration at every stop, starting on its own as you arrive — phone in your pocket.

  • The route, followed

    A live map with the turns called out, and a way back whenever you wander off it.

  • In four languages

    English, French, Spanish and Arabic — the words and the voice, not just the labels.

  • Something to answer

    A few questions as you leave a stop, written from the story you just heard.

  • Or build your own

    Pick the places you actually want and the app works out the order to walk them in.

  • The unglamorous things

    Toilets, pharmacies, cash points and water, without leaving the walk.

  • No signal needed

    Download a walk before you go and it works under a souk roof or on a plane.

  • Picks up where you left off

    Stop for lunch, come back tomorrow, and the walk is exactly where you left it.