Istanbul › Places and landmarks
Spice Bazaar
Mısır Çarşısı
The L-shaped covered market by the New Mosque, full of spices, dried fruit, tea and Turkish delight.
Photo: Miomir Magdevski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Spice Bazaar was built in the 1660s as part of the New Mosque, and its rents paid for the mosque’s upkeep. Its Turkish name, the Egyptian Bazaar, comes from the ships from Cairo whose spices were sold here.
Under its long vaults the stalls are piled with red pepper, sumac, saffron, dried apricots, figs, nuts, teas and lokum, Turkish delight. The streets round it, down to the Golden Horn, are the busiest market quarter of the old city. Visit it in 3D ›
More in Istanbul
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New MosqueThe great mosque on the water at Eminönü, begun in 1597 and finished 68 years later.
Galata BridgeThe bridge over the Golden Horn from Eminönü to Karaköy, lined with anglers on top and fish restaurants below.
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Column of ConstantineThe column Constantine the Great set up in 330 for the founding of his new capital, held together by iron hoops.
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FerriesThe white ferries that carry Istanbul across the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia, from the quays of Eminönü.