TRADITIONALTHE COVERED BAZAAR (KAPALICARSI)


The world famous Covered bazaar (Kapali Carsi) is, owing to its architecture, history, location, and sheer variety of marchandise, one of Istanbul's most significant tourist sites. The Bazaar has eight different entrances, each of them facing one of the city's most important historic monuments. These include Nuruosmaniye Mosque, Çemberlitas, the Beyazıt Complex, Istanbul University and the Second Hand Book Bazaar. Built at the command of SultanMehmed the, Conqueror in 1461, the Bazaar initially consisted of just two warehouses (bedesten). In time, merchants began to set up their own stalls and workshops in the surrounding area. Dignitaries furthered the expansion with the addition of numerous caravanserais, so that the soon place had become a focus for trading goods from all over the empire. In the 16th and 17th centuries, however, the Bazaar suffered repeated damage from the fires that ravaged that part of the city, and in 1894 was destroyed alltogether by an earthquake. After being rebuilt in 1898, the Bazaar underwent futher renovation following the fires of 1943 and 1954.In terms of structure, the visitor is confronted by what may at first seem a bewildering a maze of 61 streets. On closer inspection, however, it becomes apparent that there is, in fact, a reasonable semblance of order. The streets themselves are arranged on a grid-like system, are traditionally shopkeepers have tended to group themselves according to the type of goods they sell, whether it be jewellery, antiques, carpets, copper, or leather goods. Clues as to which area you might be in are often given by the names of streets, even if in some cases - the Street of the Turban Makers, for instance - the traders recalled are now mere vestiges of a colourful past.The Bazaar also functions as an unofficial financial centre, with a particular emphasis on gold and foreign exchange trading. Most shopkeepers will exchange different currencies.The Bazaar is open daily, except Sundays and public holidays, between 07:00 and 19:00.

AKMERKEZ

 

Situated in the wealthy street of Etiler, Akmerkez opened its doors to the public in December 1993. The complex differs from other malls in that it encompasses a business centre and apartment block, as well as a retail centre. The 226 independent unis in the retail centre are housed on three floors and sell anything from fashionware, accessories and shoes to books, electronics, cosmetics, giftware, and interior furnishings. The top floor is set aside for fast food restaurants and a multi-screen cinema. Akmerkez opens seven days of a week.On the basis of its innovative design and professional management, Akmerkez was voted Europeas best shopping mall in 1994 by the International Shopping Centre Commission.

GALLERIA

Opened in 1988 in Atakoy, Galleria was Istanbul's first modern shopping mall. The complex houses 127 retail outlets, including Printemps, the French department store, and Vakko and Beymen, the upmarket Turkish stores. Besides just shops, the complex also features an entire floor of fast food restaurants and cafeterias, the Fame City leisure and entertainment centre, an ice rink, bowling alley, cinema, and conference room. There is also a park with capacity of up to 2000. Galleria is open seven days a week. In 1990, Galleris was named the world's most outstanding mall by the International Shopping Centre Commission. Criteria for the award included the sophisticated blue-print design, rapid construction, and unique structural features.

CAPITOL

Located in Altunizade on the Asian shore of Istanbul, Capitol is built on six floors. The complex features a classic array of retail stores, including the Çarsı department store and Migros supermarket, as well as four cinemas, a theatre, children's theatre, bowling alley, a billards saloon, video games hall, and art gallery. Capitol Radio, one of Istanbul's private radio stations, also broadcasts from the complex. As with the other shopping malls, Capitol opens seven days a week.

EGYPTIAN SPICE BAZAAR

Located just behind the Yeni Mosque in Eminonu,the Spice Bazaar was built in 1660 by the architect Kazım Aga at the behest of Sultan Turhan. It gains its Turkish name, Mısır Çarşısı (Egyptian Bazaar), from the fact that it once received income from taxes levied on Egypt. The English name hails from the days when the Bazaar specialised in the sale of herbs and spices, medicinal plants, and drugs. While the colour and aroma pervading the covered hallway may since have faded to some extent, a small number of shops do still stock the traditional products. In addition, you will find sacks and shelves groaning with dried fruits and nuts, teas and infusions, oils and essences, sweetmeats, honeycombs and aphrodisiacs.The Spice Bazaar is open daily, except Sundays and public holidays.

FISH MARKET

Given its vast expanse of coastline, it is not surprising that the fishing tradition in Istanbul goes back a long way. For centuries, surrounding villages earned their livelihood from the sea, displaying their catch at colourful local markets. With the decline of the trade many have not survived to this day, although the larger ones are still flourishing. The oldest fish markets are in Eminonu and Beyoglu/Galatasaray. Others can be found in Besiktas, Kumkapı and Sarıyer.

SAHAFLAR CARSISI (SECOND HAND-BOOK BAZAAR)

Sahaflar Carsısı, the Second-hand Book Bazaar, nestles in an ancient, courtyard between the Bayezid Mosque and Fesciler entrance to the Covered Bazaar. One of Istanbul's oldest markets, the Bazaar is built on the same site as the  Chartoprateia, which used to be the book and paper market of Byzantium. However, it was only at the end of the 18th century that booksellers began to migrate across from the Covered Bazaar and set up shop in the courtyard. Printing and publishing legislation introduced soon after enabled the trade to expand in a major way and take over the entire market, which from then on became known as the Sahaflar Carsısı. Well into this century the market remained a focal point for the sale and distribution of books within the Ottoman Empire, as well as a gathering spot for Istanbul's intellectual and literary circles. However, over the last half century or so, the market has lost much of its significance with the inevitable proliferation of modern bookstores acoss the city. All the same, tattered ancient volumes are still to be found beside the gleaming new editions.The Bazaar is open daily except Sundays and public holidays, when the main stores are closed. The smaller stores, however, tend to open every day.

LOCAL OPEN MARKETS

Almost every neighborhood of Istanbul has its own open market on a set day of the week. An integral part of Istanbul culture, market day is both a social and commercial event and one that brims with colour and life. Stalls are piled high with seasonal fruits and vegetables, hardware, household gadgets, knicknacks, clothing, and textiles. Stallholders advertise their wares garrulously to the passing crowds, customers bargain mercilessly for a good price.The markets themselves are generally known either by the name of the neighborhood, or by the day of the week on which they are held. Hence, Carsamba Pazarı (Wednesday Market), is the name of the market held in the Carsamba quarter of Fatih on a Wednesday. This is one of Istanbul's oldest and most well-known markets and vies for size with the Sali Pazari (Tuesday Market) in Kadikoy, over on the Asian shore. Others of not include the Saturday market in Besiktas, and Ulus Pazari, one of the newest markets, which happens on a Thursday.As well as the weekly markets, Istanbul has a number of permanent and seasonal markets. The Cicek Pazarı (Flower Market), for instance, is located beside the Spice Bazaar in Eminonu and sells everything from seeds, pot plants, and shrubs to pets, leeches, and ducklings. The market trades seven days a week throughout the year. Further away from the centre at Topkapı is the Koc Pazarı (Ram Market), where sacrificial animals are sold, but only in the weeks leading up to Kurban Bayramı (the Feast of the Sacrifice). Another seasonal market is the Gül Pazarı (Rose Market) in Eyup Square, Yavedud. Held exculusively during the rose season, the market is a good place to buy other flower varieties, besides just roses.

TEA AND TURKISH TEA SHOPS

As Turkey's national drink, tea is consumed on a grand scale in Istanbul. Throughout the day, tea-men do the round of commercial centres, public intitutions and offices, swinging their tea trays. Although newly-opened cafes and patisseries have begun to use cups, tea is traditionally, and still more often than not, drink from delicate, tulip-shaped glasses. It is also common to find tea served from samovars in many family tea gardens

TURKISH COFFEE SHOPS

Surprisingly, perhaps, Turkish coffee has never been as widely consumed by the Turks as tea. All the same, and despite now competition from instant cofeee brands, it remains an institution in itself and is offered as a matter of course to visitors both at home and at work. Prepared from finely ground beans and heated rapidly in a special pot, the coffee is served in tiny cups either without sugar, medium-sweet or very sweet. The dregs left at the bottom are a customary source for fortune-telling.

WATER-PIPES (NARGILE)

Until only recently, the nargile (hookah) was frequently encountered in the cafes and tea houses of İstanbul, where smokers huddled over their pipes to pass the time of day. Although a rarity today, the diehard are still to be found at historic meeting places within the city walls. A typical example is the nargile cafe within the Corlulu Ali Pasha Kulliyesi on Divanyolu

ISTANBUL: A SHOPPING PARADISE

They come with empty bags and plenty of cash. Arriving in planes, buses, cars and boats from east, west, south and north. They leave draped in gold and jewels, luggage bulging with assorted trinkets, delicacies and fine garments. Some are travelling merchants, many are tourists, others are businessmen or diplomats, but they all shop, shop, shop - for bargains.The Americans and western Europeans come in search of oriental carpets and brassware. The Eastern Europeans and Central Asians buy fashionable clothes and accessories with chic western brands and labels. The Israelis prefer artistically designed gold jevellery studded with gems. Turkish leather goods are popular with all. The Russian "bag traders" leave with baggage trains that fill whole buses, packed full with merchant's cargo of everything from ladies nylons to automotive spare parts!Considering that İstanbul has been a major trading center of the Eastern Hemisphere for far more than two thousand years, it should come as no surprise that the vast variety of merchandise available should continue to attract traders and shoppers alike. You may wonder why anyone would seek to find Chinese, Indian. European and American products here. And those of us who have found that we are looking for, may sometimes pause momentarily to wonder how it is that we managed to pay such cheap prices -usually far cheaper than in our own country- until our attention is diverted to yet another bargain. Perhaps a Lacoste sports shirt, a Louis Vuitton purse, and Akai Sound system, an Anatolian Kilim Carpet, brass and copperware or even a Russian electron microscope. Yes there is certainly a lot of choice, everything from fashionable western brands sold in the swank shops of Nisantası, to Russian black market goods sold in the Sunday markets in Bayezit. And of course, the un-imaginable variety of curios, parapharnelia, and commercial goods sold in Eminonu's labyrinth of black streets, which by no coincidence comprised the heart of the Byzantine commercial district of old Constantinople.

ALL FAMOUS BRANDS OF THE WORLD

As you might expect in a city with a reputation as a fashion center, İstanbul has the chic and fashionable shopping precincts, rich with the sought after status symbols of the glamorous society elite. In Nişantaşı, Teşvikiye, and Kadıkoy; on Rumeli Caddesi, Osmanbey, and Bagdat Caddesi; in the modern shopping malls at Akmerkez and the Ataköy Galeria; every cherished and coveted designer label and brand of distinction can be found. Congruent with an affluent, refined and elegant social scene, İstanbul offers at least as much as, if not more, in the way of fashionable and stylish shoping choices than any other major European fashion center. And the prices are often better, which is because so much of the designer merchandise sold elsewhere in Europe is actually manufactured in Turkey! Istanbul is a well known destination for Europeans, coming simply to buy famous brands at bargain prices.

ART OF JEWELRY IN ISTANBUL

The goldsmiths of İstanbul inherited centuries of artisan skills of knowledge, which is clearly evident in their work. European jewellers would charge a high premium for the artistic content of rings, necklaces, and brooches similar to those found in İstanbul, but the simple truth is they are repidly loosing the skills and craftsmen to produce comparatively fine and creative detail. When shopping for jewels don't be over-awed by the abundance of designs, or lured into thinking that they are commonplace, for you are truly is one of the finest gold working centers of the world, Remember İstanbul has been a prime center of the trade for thousands of years.

CARPETS AND HAIRCRAFTS OF ANATOLIA

The Turkish kilim is a type of hand-made carpet famous for it's geometric design and contrasting colors. The patterns are symbolic of traditional images important in typical Anatolian life, while the colors represent prosperity, happiness, fertility, and other traditional values. Whether you're interested in a kilim or oriented carpet, you will enjoy the hospitality of the vendor while negotiating your purchase. The Kapalıcarsı, or covered bazaar offers many different shops to choose from, and while there you will also have a chance to buy many other handicrafts which Anatolia is famous for; brass and pewter trays and kitchen utensils; pottery, hand painted tiles, & decorative porcelain; jewellery; traditional clothing and colourful, hand printed fabrics; traditional hats; and leather accessories.