Sultanahmet: Istanbul

Sultanahmet is the old city or in other words the historical center of the city of Istanbul. This where all the main historical attractions, monuments and the mosques are. The nice part about Sultanahmet is that all historical sites are close enough to one another to be easily accessed on foot. Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapı Palace and Basilica Cistern are among the most famous and major historical examples. The shopping haven and the historical bank, the Grand Bazaar, is also connected to Sultanahmet: One of its main entrances can be reached walking through Sultanahmet. Besides its historical richness, Sultanahmet also offers a vivid social scene. It is filled with hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, rug stores and souvenir shops. The locals, nevertheless, do not hang out around here as much. The social scene of Sultanahmet seems more reserved for the tourists. Fes Cafe is one of the cozy places to have lunch or a cup coffee or to drop by in the evening for drinks. The famous Sultanahmet Köftecisi, which is a meatball house, is also here. Although, there are many imitators of this meatball house around the city, the first and the original one is in Sultanahmet. The era of 60s and those familiar to the hippie movement, may also be aware that the famous Pudding Shop, where the hippies traveling from all around the world used to meet at, is also in Sultanahmet. Sultanahmet is a neighbourhood, that is impossible to fit into a few lines of descriptive words. The best is to hit the Divan Yolu, the main street, with its hundreds of tiny back streets and alleyways and explore the history of the old city. © NileGuide