Instant Cities: Istanbul

Istanbul › Places and landmarks

Galata Bridge

Galata Köprüsü

The bridge over the Golden Horn from Eminönü to Karaköy, lined with anglers on top and fish restaurants below.

See it in 3D Watch the tour

Photo: Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A bridge has crossed the Golden Horn here since 1845, linking the old city to Galata and Karaköy on the other side. The floating bridge of 1912 burnt in 1992, and the bridge of today, with its trams in the middle, opened in 1994.

All day long anglers stand along its railings with their rods over the water, and on the lower deck, under the road, restaurants serve fish to people looking out over the water. Across the water the Galata Tower stands above the roofs. Visit it in 3D ›

More in Istanbul

Hagia SophiaJustinian’s great church of 537, with its dome 55 metres high: a church, then a mosque, a museum and a mosque again. Blue MosqueThe mosque of Sultan Ahmed I, with six minarets and some twenty thousand blue tiles from İznik inside. HippodromeThe long square where Byzantium held its chariot races, with an Egyptian obelisk and a bronze serpent column still on it. Basilica CisternThe underground water store of Justinian, a forest of 336 columns standing in the water. Topkapı PalaceThe palace of the Ottoman sultans for almost four hundred years, on the tip of the peninsula above the Bosphorus. Grand BazaarOne of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, some sixty streets and four thousand shops under one roof. Spice BazaarThe L-shaped covered market by the New Mosque, full of spices, dried fruit, tea and Turkish delight. New MosqueThe great mosque on the water at Eminönü, begun in 1597 and finished 68 years later. Sirkeci StationThe end of the line for the Orient Express from Paris, a station of 1890 by the sea. Column of ConstantineThe column Constantine the Great set up in 330 for the founding of his new capital, held together by iron hoops. SimitThe sesame bread ring sold from red carts on every corner, eaten for breakfast with a glass of tea. FerriesThe white ferries that carry Istanbul across the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia, from the quays of Eminönü.