Istanbul Private Tour from Airport

We will be visiting the little Hagia Sophia Mosque which is one of the most famous and outstanding monuments of the world. It has a basilica architectural plan which was applied here for the first time in history. It is known as one of the ancient churches in Istanbul dating back to 6th century, which was founded by Justinianos, the all-powerful emperor and it has been used as a mosque since 1497.

We will also visit the Byzantian Hippodrome that witnessed big league competition among the teams of Greens and Blues with the most mainstream sport of that era known as Chariot racing. The ancient hippodrome was the arena of chariot races and it embodies three monuments termed as Obelisk of Theodosius, Bronze serpentine column and German Fountain of Wilhelm II and these are one of the other unquestionably engaging sites that shall be visited.

Our next stop will be the breathtakingly beautiful Blue Mosque which is formerly called as Sultan Ahmet Cami by the Turks and generically referred as Blue Mosque because of its incredible hand-made quartz tiles and a magnificent interior decoration of blue Iznik tiles. This spectacular mosque was built in the 16th century and it incorporates 6 unique minarets touching to skies.

Right after having lunch we will proceed to the Grand Bazaar which is the primeval and largest Bazaars in the world with more than 4,000 shops and 60 streets selling rugs and kilims, leather, pottery, jewellery, souvenirs, ceramics, carpets and just about everything. This is one of those superb markets in the world that attracts 250,000 to 400,000 visitors a day.

Moving ahead, we will step in the Royal Topkapi Palace, the great palace of the 24 Ottoman Sultans from 15th to 19th centuries which is full of exhibitions and manifestations of scraps of Sultans’ costumes, guns, swords treasury and thrones. This tour does not cover the harem section.

We will be stepping into the Underground Cistern which is locally known as Yerebatan Sarayi that means Sunken Palace. This underground water cistern was the main water reservoir of Constantipole and it was built in the 4th Century. It was considerably expanded by Justinian in 537 Ad and used as a water storage for the Great Place during Byzantine times and for the the Topkapi Palace under the Ottomans.