Byzantium & Ottoman Istanbul

Meals: Dinner

This morning, we start at the landmark Blue Mosque. With its high dome and semi-domes, multiple minarets and beautiful interior, richly blue with the finest tiles from the imperial tile-makers of the time, it’s an impressive sight. Close by are the remains of the Hippodrome, the former chariot racing stadium of late-Roman and Byzantine Istanbul. Its once-soaring seating accommodated tens of thousands of spectators, or, on occasions, angry citizens taking noisy part in political meetings. A short walk brings us to the Hagia Sophia. Built by Justinian in the early 6th century, converted into a mosque in the 15th century, secularised as a museum in the 20th and repurposed as a mosque in the 21st, this architectural marvel is not just a place of worship but a long enduring symbol of the city. After lunch, we continue to the Basilica Cistern, a cavernous Byzantine underground water cistern which once supplied the imperial palaces until they fell into ruin. We negotiate walkways above the water and admire its remarkable engineering. We finish the day in the excellent Istanbul Archaeological Museum, built by the Sultans to house their collections from across the Ottoman Empire.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We begin the day exploring the Sulemaniye mosque complex, built by the architect Sinan for the Sultan in the 16th century. The mosque and its courtyard are at the centre of a complex which comprised a madrasa, alms-houses, infirmaries, caravanserais, a medical school, baths, a hospital and shops. We then walk westward, past the Aqueduct of Valens and remnants of the Church of St Polyeuctus, to the imposing Mosque of the Conqueror (Fatih Cami), built at the behest of Mehmet the Conqueror on top of the old city’s fourth hill. Close by is another great imperial mosque, the Selimiye, topping the fifth hill and affording splendid views down to the Golden Horn and Bosphorus. After lunch, we walk steeply down a formerly Greek Orthodox neighbourhood, past the Church of Mary of the Mongols, to the banks of the great inlet of the Golden Horn. Here we visit the Fener Patriarchate, still the spiritual heart of the Orthodox Christian world, and the ornate, 19th-century Bulgarian Church of St Stephens.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Our first visit today is to the Chora Church, justly renowned for the fabulous late-Byzantine era mosaic panels liberally covering the walls and ceilings of the outer and inner narthexes, and the beautiful frescoes in the funerary chapel. Chora is located close to the Walls of Theodosius, constructed early in the 5th century. These near four mile-long walls, running from the Sea of Marmara to the Golden Horn, successfully protected the city for over a 1,000 years. A major feature of the walls is the Ottoman Turkish fortification of Yedikule, which includes within its structure the much earlier Golden Gate, once a triumphal arch used by Byzantine emperors returning to the city after a successful campaign. After lunch, we visit the Church of Zoodochus Pege, a working Greek Orthodox church set amongst the cemeteries flanking the Walls of Theodosius. Returning to the heart of the old city, we take in the architecturally innovative Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, Roman soldiers who were martyred under Emperor Maximian around 300. It was converted into a mosque in the Ottoman period but retains many of its original features. We then visit a fine Turkish carpets emporium located, intriguingly, above a well-preserved Byzantine cistern, complete with an exhibition on the nearby Hippodrome.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today we begin at Taksim Square in the ‘European Quarter’ of the city. From here, we walk down Istiklal Caddesi, formerly known as the Grand Rue de Pera during the Ottoman period when it attracted an intellectual crowd and became the place to stroll for the mixed Greek, Armenian and Levantine communities of the area. We visit the superb Pera Museum, which houses a private collection of historical artefacts and paintings from the Ottoman period and then continue after lunch to Galata. Here we see the 61-metre-high Galata Tower, which once formed part of the fortifications of the walls protecting the Genoese colony. A lift does most of the work, but there’s still a couple of staircases climbs to reach the viewing platform, which allows a stunning 360-degree panorama of the city. We also visit the Galata Mevlevi Museum, the beautifully preserved semahane or dance hall, where adherents of the faith once performed a ritual, rotational dance (hence the name we in the West use for the Mevlevi, Whirling Dervishes). We conclude the day with a stroll across the architecturally undistinguished but ever-fascinating Galata Bridge, lined with hopeful anglers and cheap and cheerful restaurant-bars, which links Europeanised Pera/Galata with the old city centred on Sultanahmet. Our final stop is the Ottoman-era Spice Bazaar, jam-packed with all manner of spices, Turkish delight, dried fruit and nuts.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

This morning, we visit the Hagia Eirene, originally built in the 4th century and reconstructed in the 6th after a catastrophic fire. Used by the Ottomans as an arsenal until the 19th century, it is one of the few churches in Istanbul that was not converted into a mosque. The porphyry sarcophagus in the courtyard of the church is thought to be that of Constantine the Great himself. Next, we explore the famous Topkapi Palace, the rambling palace complex of the Ottoman sultans until they moved in the 19th century to a French-style building on the Bosphorus waterfront. Now a museum, Topkapi is a veritable treasure house of architecture and applied arts. A highlight of the visit is the Harem, a beautifully decorated series of rooms which formed the female quarters of the palace. After lunch, we take a cruise northward up the continent-dividing Bosphorus Strait, towards the Black Sea. Sites we view from our vessel include Dolmabahce Palace and the fortresses of Rumeli and Anadolu Hisar.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Meals: Breakfast