Istanbul City & Secrets Walking Tour

This spacious Roman-built cistern shows off impressive Roman engineering was commissioned by Emperor Justinian and built in 532. The largest surviving Byzantine cistern in Istanbul has been the backdrop for many movies over time. Its cavernous depths make a great retreat on hot summer days.

The Caferağa Medresseh is a former medrese and is now recognised as an important centre of Turkish classical arts where traditional Turkish handicrafts such as calligraphy, ceramics, jewellery and so forth are taught, made and sold.

This is a small street with beautiful historic houses which are leaning against the wall of Topkapi Palace.

The imperial residence of Ottoman sultans is the subject of more colourful stories than most of the world's museums put together. Libidinous sultans, ambitious courtiers, beautiful concubines and scheming eunuchs lived and worked here between the 15th and 19th centuries when it was the court of the Ottoman Empire. About 24 sultans ruled from the Topkapi Palace for nearly four centuries during the Ottoman Empire's 600-year reign

Began its life as a church in 532 AD, converted into a mosque after the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and is now a museum since 1935. By general consensus, it is the most important Byzantine structure and one of the world's great monuments built under the direction of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. Part of the UNESCO World Heritage site in Istanbul and famous for its lofty interior, stunning surviving mosaics and massive dome.

Sultan Ahmet Center, the heart of the Old City from where the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires were ruled

This beautiful square and a great place to make a stop, relax and take photos of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

Sultan Ahmed Mosque, known as the Blue Mosque by many tourists because of its bluish interior decoration( blue tiles surrounding the walls of interior design), is the most important mosque of Istanbul standing next to the Byzantine Hippodrome in the old city centre.

Constructed as a present from German Emperor Wilhelm II in 1898, it represents one of the most beautiful monuments in Istanbul.

Also known as the Serpentine Column, Plataean Tripod or Delphi Tripod, is an ancient bronze column at the Hippodrome of Constantinople (known as Atmeydanı Horse Square in the Ottoman period). It is part of an ancient Greek sacrificial tripod, originally in Delphi and relocated to Constantinople by Constantine the Great in 324.

The Walled Obelisk or Masonry Obelisk (Turkish: Örme Dikilitaş) is a Roman monument in the form of an obelisk. It is situated at the southern end of the ancient chariot-racing track of Constantinople's central barrier, beside the Obelisk of Theodosius and the Serpentine Column.

Shop till you drop in Tahtakale, a sub-district of Istanbul's Eminönü, where you can find anything and everything you are looking for, all for reasonable prices.

No visit to Istanbul is complete without stopping by the atmospheric Spice Bazaar with roots dating back to 1660, this is one of Istanbul's most famous bazaars. Vividly coloured spices are displayed alongside jewel-like lokum (Turkish delight) at this Ottoman-era marketplace, providing eye candy for the thousands of tourists and locals who make their way here every day. Stalls also sells caviar, dried herbs, honey, nuts and dried fruits.