From a glass-walled penthouse high above Istiklal Caddesi, 360 Istanbul offers one of the most spectacular vantage points in the entire city. Set on the top floor of the 19th-century Misir Apartment in the heart of Beyoglu, its wraparound terraces serve up sweeping panoramas of the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. By day and early evening it functions as a stylish fine-dining restaurant, serving a fusion of Turkish and international cuisine to a smart, cosmopolitan crowd drawn.....

Since opening its doors in 1999, Babylon has stood at the very forefront of Istanbul's live-music culture. The venue made its name in the Asmalimescit district, where its stage hosted contemporary and progressive sounds and transformed the city's musical landscape, before relocating in 2015 to a purpose-built home within the historic Bomontiada complex in Sisli. That move placed it inside a beautifully restored 19th-century brewery, a red-brick cultural hub now filled with restaurants, gallerie.....

Thousands of toys, nostalgic film-scene dioramas and a traditional Turkish shadow-puppet section fill the Balat Toy Museum, a family-friendly museum in the historic Balat neighbourhood of Istanbul, on the European shore of the Golden Horn. Opened in 2021 in the colourful, atmospheric quarter known for its old houses and steep cobbled lanes, the museum gathers a large collection of toys from the past and present, displayed alongside scenes that recreate moments from beloved films and stories, gi.....

Rows of ancient columns rising from dark, still water beneath the streets of old Istanbul make the Basilica Cistern one of the most atmospheric and surprising sights in the city. The largest of the many underground cisterns built beneath the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, it was constructed in the sixth century AD under the emperor Justinian to store water for the great palace and the surrounding buildings, fed by aqueducts from the forests to the north. The vast subterranean chamber is su.....

A high-energy club in the heart of Beyoglu, BEAT is one of the venues keeping central Istanbul's nightlife buzzing into the small hours. Set on Yesilcam Sokak just off Istiklal Caddesi, it sits squarely within the dense cluster of bars and clubs that make the district the city's after-dark playground. Its programming centres on club nights, DJ sets and themed parties pitched at a young, international crowd. The compact, music-driven room keeps the focus on the dance floor and the energy of the.....

With more than sixteen years on the Taksim scene, Club IQ has become one of the area's most enduring nightspots. Set on Bahceli Hamam Sokak in the heart of Beyoglu, it has built its name on a high-energy dance atmosphere and a track record of hosting international performers. Over the years its stage has welcomed globally known pop acts, from Inna to Alexandra Stan. The music leans toward commercial dance, pop and club hits aimed at a lively, mixed crowd. Open late into the early morning, it .....

The Dolmabahce Palace marks the moment when the Ottoman sultans abandoned the medieval seclusion of Topkapi for the grandeur of a European-style royal residence on the shore of the Bosphorus. Built in the mid-nineteenth century for Sultan Abdulmecid I and completed in 1856, it stretches for nearly six hundred metres along the water in the Besiktas district, its white marble facade and ornamental gates presenting one of the most opulent waterfronts in the city. Inside, the palace is a lavish ble.....

The Galata Tower has watched over Istanbul for nearly seven centuries, its conical cap and stout stone cylinder rising above the steep streets of Beyoglu as one of the most recognisable landmarks on the European shore. It was built in the mid-fourteenth century by the Genoese, who held the district of Galata as a trading colony, and served as the high point of their fortified quarter; in Ottoman times it took on many roles, as a watchtower against fire, a prison, an observatory and a lookout. Le.....

One of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, the Grand Bazaar has been the commercial heart of Istanbul since the years following the Ottoman conquest, when Sultan Mehmet II ordered the building of a covered market to fund the great mosque of Hagia Sophia. Over the centuries it grew into a vast labyrinth of more than sixty streets and several thousand shops, sheltered beneath vaulted and domed roofs in the Beyazit district of the old city, and at its peak it formed the trading hub.....

For nearly a thousand years the largest enclosed space in the world, Hagia Sophia stands as one of the supreme achievements of human building and a monument layered with the history of two great faiths and empires. It was raised in the sixth century by the Byzantine emperor Justinian, who is said to have exclaimed on its completion that he had outdone Solomon, and its vast dome, seeming to float on a ring of windows above the central space, transformed the architecture of its age and astonished .....