Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı)
The seventeenth-century Egyptian Bazaar at Eminönü — spices, Turkish delight, nuts, dried fruit and teas.
Built in the 1660s as part of the New Mosque complex, the L-shaped Spice Bazaar took its Turkish name, Mısır Çarşısı, from the Egyptian revenues that funded it. Today it is the city’s best-known place for spices, lokum, saffron, dried fruit and coffee.
The surrounding streets of Eminönü — the flower and seed market, Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi’s coffee shop and the Rüstem Paşa Mosque — make a lively hour before boarding a Bosphorus cruise from the nearby piers.
- →Usually open seven days a week, unlike the Grand Bazaar — a good Sunday option.
- →Vacuum-packed spices and lokum travel well; recommend guests buy on the last days.
- →The area is very crowded on weekends; keep groups compact.
Tours visiting this place
Hotels nearby
A landmark luxury hotel on the Karaköy waterfront, created from three historic buildings and a new wing within Galataport.
An intimate luxury hotel in a restored early twentieth-century building, set around a garden courtyard in the heart of Sultanahmet.
A well-run four-star hotel in Sultanahmet, known for its rooftop restaurant overlooking the historic peninsula.
Places nearby
- Süleymaniye Mosque0.6 km
Mimar Sinan’s masterpiece for Süleyman the Magnificent, crowning the third hill above the Golden Horn.
- Grand Bazaar (Kapalıçarşı)0.7 km
One of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world — a labyrinth of vaulted streets, hans and thousands of shops.
- Galata Tower1.0 km
The fourteenth-century Genoese tower above Karaköy, with a 360° balcony over the Golden Horn and Bosphorus.
- Basilica Cistern1.1 km
A sixth-century underground cistern of 336 marble columns, with the famous Medusa heads.
- Hagia Sophia1.2 km
The sixth-century Byzantine cathedral, later an Ottoman mosque — the defining monument of Istanbul.
- Topkapı Palace1.2 km
The palace of the Ottoman sultans for almost four centuries, overlooking the meeting point of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn.