Classical Tour of Istanbul

Drive to the old town and visit Hippodrome Square, the scene of chariot races and the centre of Byzantine civic life, originally built by Roman Emperor Septimus in 203 AD. Then visit the Blue Mosque, built in the early 17th century and known as the Blue Mosque because of its magnificent interior decoration with blue Iznik tiles. It is unique in the world in having 6 minarets.

Continue to St. Sophia, built by Emperor Constantius in 360 AD — for many centuries the world's largest church and today the fourth largest after St. Paul's in London, St. Peter's in Rome and the Duomo in Milan. Throughout its Byzantine history it served as the cathedral where emperors were crowned and victories celebrated. After the conquest of 1453 it was converted into a mosque, and after 481 years it became a museum in 1934 by the order of Atatürk.

Visit the famous historical Grand Bazaar, the largest covered oriental shopping mall in the world, where 4,400 shops sit under one roof and each trade has its own street — leather, jewellery, antiques, copperware, souvenirs and famous hand-made Turkish carpets.

Continue to Topkapi Palace, built by Sultan Mehmet II after the conquest of Istanbul in the 15th century. The palace housed the sultans and their entourage until the mid-19th century and today displays priceless collections of the imperial treasury, Chinese porcelain, traditional costumes and the relics of the Prophet Mohammed.

The final stops are Hagia Eirene, the Church of the Holy Peace — one of the few churches in Istanbul never converted into a mosque — and Gülhane Park, once part of the outer gardens of Topkapı Palace, where the Edict of Gülhane was proclaimed.