No
Set Departures Or Minimum Numbers Are Required
This Trip Is Available All Year Around
The home of three great empires, this historic city stands proudly on the shores of the Bosphorus, linking Europe with Asia.
Istanbul is a treasure trove of architectural marvels, like Haghia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern and the Blue Mosque, the imposing city walls, built by the Romans, and the century-old wooden mansions, called yalis along the Bosphorus. At every turn, you spy new wonders like the Suleymaniye Mosque, one of the masterpieces of the greatest Ottoman architect, Mimar Sinan, or the Sultan’s mid-19th century palace, Dolmabahce.
The brilliant art of the mosaic reached its zenith in the vaulted apses of the Chora Church, where the lives of Jesus and the Virgin Mary are narrated with lovingly human detail in the carefully wrought gold-leaf mosaics that illuminate every corner of the church. The 14th century frescoes depicting the Last Judgement are breathtaking, with the contorted limbs and expressions of the damned vividly recalling Michaelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.
Of course, no visit to Istanbul is complete without a trip to the legendary Grand Bazaar. Its thousands of shops offer visitors an unimaginable variety of treasures from hand-woven carpets and kilims to handmade gold and silver jewelry, burnished beaten copper, inlaid wood, hand-painted ceramics and more. Tucked away in the corners of this magnificent labyrinth are shops selling fine antiques, like Ottoman coins, illuminated manuscripts, inlaid ebony jewelry boxes and Greek and Roman artifacts.
Summer evenings at the Istanbul Open-air Theater, a reproduction of the antique theaters of Asia Minor, are alive with music. Host to jazz, classical and contemporary music festivals, the Open-air Theater gives you a chance to enjoy concerts by international stars in Istanbul’s unique ambiance.
Come to Istanbul, not just for its exotic beauty and 3,000-year history, but for a fanfare of culture to delight the eye, ear and palate.
Istanbul…. Constantinople….. Byzantium… with each name an empire and with each empire a culture and an art that produced some of the world’s grandest monuments to human ingenuity and power.
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