The Topkapi Palace

Zone: Around the square Sultanahmet

During our excursion we'll be visiting the Topkapi Palace – built in the 15th century, and which served for almost four hundred years as the residence of the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. Surrounded by the sea on three sides, and on all sides by massive, impregnable fortified walls, it was known as a 'city within a city', covering over seven hundred thousand square metres – an area greater than the size of the Vatican – and stretching along the banks of Cape Sarayburnu for a full five kilometres. At one time, the palace was home to a population of up to five thousand people! The palace architecture is starkly contrasted to European styles. In fact, it can be thought of as a complete complex of buildings, structures, and pavilions which have a strange resemblance to a tent city. Turks, of course, were originally a nomadic people, and this aspect of their lives is reflected in the appearance of this great palace complex of the Ottoman Empire.