Free self-guided walking tour of Istanbul, from Sultanahmet to the Galata Tower

This free self-guided walk through Istanbul's historic peninsula and Galata is about 6.8 km long, with about 1 hour 30 minutes of walking and 14 stops. It starts at the Hippodrome (Sultanahmet Square) and ends at the Galata Tower. Every stop below has a short summary and a link to the source it is based on.

Distance and walking time come from the OpenStreetMap foot router (routing.openstreetmap.de), calculated along streets between the stops of Guidera's curated tour "Istanbul: Byzantine & Ottoman Treasures".

What does the route look like?

The route starts at the Hippodrome in Sultanahmet, visits the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern, Hagia Sophia and Topkapı Palace, walks down through Gülhane Park past the Archaeology Museums and Sirkeci station to Eminönü, the New Mosque, the Spice Bazaar and the Rüstem Pasha Mosque, then crosses the Galata Bridge and climbs to the Galata Tower.

What will I see on this walk?

1. Hippodrome of Constantinople

The Hippodrome was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, where horse and chariot races were held. Today it is Sultanahmet Square, also called Atmeydanı ("Horse Square") in Turkish.

Source: Wikipedia: Hippodrome of Constantinople

2. Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, known as the Blue Mosque, was built between 1609 and 1617 under Sultan Ahmed I. It has a central dome with four semi-domes and six minarets, and its interior is decorated with thousands of Iznik tiles in mainly blue colours, which give the mosque its popular name.

Source: Wikipedia: Blue Mosque, Istanbul

3. Basilica Cistern

The Basilica Cistern, 150 m southwest of Hagia Sophia, is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns beneath Istanbul. It was built in the 6th century under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and is named after a great basilica that once stood above it.

Source: Wikipedia: Basilica Cistern

4. Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia was completed in AD 537 as the cathedral of Constantinople and was then the world's largest interior space, among the first to use a fully pendentive dome. It served as a church from 360 to 1453 and as a museum from 1935 to 2020, and is now the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture.

Source: Wikipedia: Hagia Sophia

5. Topkapi Palace

Topkapı Palace was the administrative centre of the Ottoman Empire and the main residence of the sultans from the 1460s until Dolmabahçe Palace was completed in 1853. Construction began in 1459 under Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. It was originally called the New Palace; the name Topkapı, meaning Cannon Gate, dates from the 19th century. Today it is a museum.

Source: Wikipedia: Topkapı Palace

6. Gülhane Park

Gülhane Park, on the grounds of Topkapı Palace, is the oldest and one of the largest public parks in Istanbul, covering 9.7 hectares. The 1839 Edict of Gülhane, which launched the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms, was proclaimed here.

Source: Wikipedia: Gülhane Park

7. Istanbul Archaeology Museums

The Istanbul Archaeology Museums are three museums near Gülhane Park and Topkapı Palace: the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of the Ancient Orient and the Museum of Islamic Art in the Tiled Kiosk. Together they hold over one million objects.

Source: Wikipedia: Istanbul Archaeology Museums

8. Sirkeci Railway Station

Sirkeci station was built in 1890 by the Oriental Railway as the eastern terminus of the Orient Express from Paris. It stands on the tip of the historic peninsula next to the Golden Horn.

Source: Wikipedia: Sirkeci railway station

9. Eminönü Square

Eminönü is a busy commercial waterfront area where the Golden Horn meets the Bosphorus, connected to Karaköy (historic Galata) by the Galata Bridge. It lies entirely within the old city walls.

Source: Wikipedia: Eminönü

10. Yeni Cami (New Mosque)

The New Mosque stands on the Golden Horn at the southern end of the Galata Bridge. Construction began in 1597 on the orders of Safiye Sultan, mother of Sultan Mehmed III, and it was completed between 1660 and 1665. It is a notable example of the period known as the Sultanate of Women.

Source: Wikipedia: New Mosque, Istanbul

11. Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı)

The Spice Bazaar is one of Istanbul's largest bazaars and its best-known covered market after the Grand Bazaar. It was built in 1660 and named the "Egyptian Bazaar" because it was paid for with revenue from Ottoman Egypt (mısır means both "Egypt" and "maize" in Turkish).

Source: Wikipedia: Spice Bazaar

12. Rüstem Pasha Mosque

The Rüstem Pasha Mosque, near the Spice Bazaar, was designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan for Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha and completed around 1563. It is noted for the many designs of İznik tiles covering almost every wall inside and under the entrance porch.

Source: Wikipedia: Rüstem Pasha Mosque

13. Galata Bridge

The Galata Bridge spans the Golden Horn between Eminönü and Karaköy. The current bridge, built in 1994, is the fifth on the site, and the bridge has long featured in Turkish literature, theatre and poetry.

Source: Wikipedia: Galata Bridge

14. Galata Tower

The Galata Tower is a medieval Genoese tower built in 1348 at the highest point of the walls of Galata, then a Genoese colony. Today it is a museum and exhibition space and a symbol of Beyoğlu and Istanbul.

Source: Wikipedia: Galata Tower

Can I do this walk with an audio guide?

Yes. This route is one of the curated tours in Guidera, the iPhone app I build ("Istanbul: Byzantine & Ottoman Treasures", 14 stops). In Guidera, text stories are free (5 per day); audio narration and Walkman mode, which narrates each stop automatically as you walk, are part of Premium. You can stop and resume the tour where you left off. You can also download the tour and walk it offline: on the free tier one featured tour at a time, text only, after a short video; with Premium, up to 10 tours with audio. Map tiles aren't saved, so open the tour map once while online. Guidera runs on iPhone, not Android.

Sources

English Wikipedia articles, checked 1 October 2026: Hippodrome of Constantinople, Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Basilica Cistern, Hagia Sophia, Topkapı Palace, Gülhane Park, Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Sirkeci railway station, Eminönü, New Mosque, Istanbul, Spice Bazaar, Rüstem Pasha Mosque, Galata Bridge, Galata Tower. Route and distances: OpenStreetMap foot router, map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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