ICONIC ISTANBUL

The busy Bosphorus Strait divides the dynamic city of İstanbul, which straddles hillsides on its European and Asian banks. The city was settled thousands of years before the ancient Silk Road; its Jewish heritage dates to 500 BCE, and its Greek Orthodox and Christian Roman communities are two thousand years old. The Ottoman Empire launched in the late thirteenth century, and today, 99 percent of a population of nearly 20 million is Muslim, of which about half are claimed to practice the religion. These layers of multicultural history—with Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires and Sephardic Jewish, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian influences—are all reflected in the city’s distinctive architecture and culinary diversity.

The up-to-the-minute-modern metropolis boasts luxury hotels, significant newly-launched cultural venues, and a state-of-the-art transportation system. You’ll arrive at a sleek, new international airport or the world’s first underground cruise terminal: Galataport, with its shops, restaurants, and the new Peninsula Hotel. Once in the city, there are silent trams that connect the old and modern city, fast subways that link both sides of the Bosphorus Strait, and a popular public ferry system that crosses the Bosphorus between the European and Asian sides. Taxis are widely available, though it’s wise to ask a hotel valet for one because they vet the drivers.

SEE
Sultanahmet was the former Byzantine and Ottoman capital on the historic peninsula between the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn. Its current cobblestone streets are crowded with boutiques, hotels, and restaurants near significant landmarks. Chariot races occurred here, in Sultanahmet Square, the former Byzantine Hippodrome of Constantinople. Now, vendors with brightly-colored carts sell grilled corn, roasted chestnuts, and sesame-salt-topped, braided, bagel-shaped, pretzel-like Simit bread in the square between The Blue Mosque and the gold, mosaic-covered Hagia Sophia, a mosque that was originally built in 527, as the Church of the Holy Wisdom. Nearby, the recently-renovated, newly-reopened underground Basilica Cistern is a beautifully-lighted and sculpture-studded subterranean chamber supported by 336 marble columns and large enough to contain more than 17 million gallons of fresh water. This cistern supplied filtered water to the neighboring Topkapi Palace complex, where Sultans lived and worked from the mid-15th to the mid-19th century in a garden across the Bosphorus Strait and Asia; now, it’s a UNESCO historic landmark.

DINE In Sultanahmet, vendors hawk Turkish-made gold, leather, carpets, and designer replicas at the enormous, domed Grand Bazaar. The famous Nusr-Et Steakhouse serves halal beef grilled, sliced, and seared in sizzling butter and salads topped with pomegranate seeds, corn, and avocado.

The 17th-century Egyptian Bazaar, aka The Spice Bazaar, where stalls display fragrant saffron, cumin, dried fruits, nuts, and a fantastic assortment of sweets, is home to the blue-tiled Pendeli Restaurant, which serves Anatolian food; the legendary eatery boasts a century old history, an international celebrity clientele, and Michelin Bib Gourmand status for its authentic Meze appetizers and Köfte meatballs.

In Balat, a neighboring district, the 15th-century Sephardic synagogue and Greek Orthodox church are near the New Balat Café & Restaurant, where the cook makes Gözleme pancakes al fresco. She rolls the individual mounds of dough, stuffs them with spinach or potato or meat, and cooks the tortilla-thin rounds on a crèpe-like griddle. In the bustling restaurant, hotel, and shopping district called Beşiktaş—which is also the name of the sports club and football stadium—the new Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM) offers a 2,500-seat opera house, cinema, libraries, cafes, and the stunning Divan Brasserie Fuaye, which serves Turkish, Italian vegetarian options. Alaf, with its rooftop cocktail bar overlooking the Bosphorus, is also located in Beşiktaş; inside, Chef Deniz Temel serves traditional Anatolian, Kurdish, Armenian, and Yoruk cuisine, including a lamb pide, a stuffed pastry dish, cooked in a wood-fired oven! In Kuzguncuk, on the Asian side and reached by ferry and taxi, Ismet Baba is a waterside restaurant serving meze appetizers and whole grilled fresh fish near the Imoga Museum of Graphic Art and the homemade Aromaterapi boutique.

STAY
The iconic Çırağan Palace Kempinski is a former Sultans’ palace with eleven opulent suites in the original palace’s current 310 accommodations, all situated on a waterfront promenade, which is home to its park, historic arch, and swimming pools. The public can make restaurant reservations, including the stately fine dining venue, Tuğra, and Sanitas Spa. The spa offers a Turkish Ritual in the private, marble-lined hammam; it includes a loofah exfoliation, a soft, foam-suds wash, a warm rinse, and a body massage. A modern marble hammam at the S-shaped 553-room Conrad İstanbul Bosphorus is perched on a hillside, where rooms and the 14th-floor Summit Bar and Terrace overlook the Bosphorus. The luxurious 65-room Four Seasons Istanbul at Sultanahmet is housed in a converted, century-old Turkish prison adjacent to the Hagia Sofia mosque, which can be viewed close-up from its rooftop Sureyya Teras lounge.

DO
From the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, Sultans built personal marble-lined hammams plus grand, domed hammams for the public, most of whom didn’t have running water. Inside each hammam are water spigots in the marble walls and a heated, raised marble table called a göbektaşı for body services. Visitors flock to hammams in hotels and public ones, such as Haseki Hurrem Sultan Hamami, a 16th-century venue renovated in 2007; Cağaloğlu c. 1741 and the Sultan Süleyman, c.1557, a coed hammam.  

For more information on Istanbul, visit goturkiye.com