Full day city tour of Istanbul

Departure from the port , our first visit will be the  Sultanahmet Mosque (aka Blue Mosque  ), which is famous with its Iznik blue tiles , then we will proceed with the visit of the  Hippodrome  of which was a public arena mainly for chariot races.  Our next visit will be the famous Hagia Sophia that was built in 537 as the patriarchal cathedral of the imperial capital of Constantinople, it was the largest Christian church of the eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine Empire) and the Eastern Orthodox Church, except during the Latin Empire from 1204 to 1261, when it became the city’s Roman Catholic cathedral. In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, it was converted into a mosque. In 1935 the secular Turkish Republic established it as a museum. In 2020, it re-opened as a mosque. . Lunch will be served at local restaurant. After lunch, we will visit the Topkapi Palace that was served as the main residence and administrative headquarters of the Sultans during the Ottoman Empire. Our last stop will be the Grand Bazaar which   is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops , often regarded one of  the first shopping malls of the World . Transfer back to the port.