A covered street in the Grand BazaarGrand Bazaar
- Best time
- Weekday mornings; closed on Sundays
- Getting there
- Tram to Beyazıt–Kapalıçarşı
Why it’s in the log
Construction of the Grand Bazaar's core, the Bedesten, started in the winter of 1455–56, soon after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, and finished in 1460–61; Mehmed II built it for trading textiles and jewels. The bazaar grew around it into 61 covered streets with more than 4,000 shops. Fires and earthquakes kept damaging it, the last major one in 1894.
Its streets were once named for what was sold on them, and the old Bedesten is still where the antiques and jewellery are. Go early on a weekday; it's closed on Sundays.
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