The Grand Bazaar
European part of Istanbul, near the Sultanahmet Mosque and Hagia Sophia.
Description:
The Great Bazaar is a universe of things occupying over 4,000 shops. It has everything: Turkish carpets and dishes, copper and leather products, exquisite jewelry sculptures, alabaster holders for books and ashtrays, lamps and haberdashery, exclusive collections of antiquities.
Construction of the bazaar began in 1455, and 6 years later it opened to the first visitors. Today it is visited by about 400,000 customers daily, which exceeds the number of people who want to see the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower. In order to accept such an impressive number of people who want to buy things, 20 entrance gates are open at the bazaar. The most notable is the central gate of Nuruosmaniya, which reads: “God has mercy on him who devotes himself to trade.”