Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace was founded in the 1460s under Mehmed II on the headland between the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, and for almost four centuries it remained the main residence of the Ottoman sultans. Its layout is unlike that of European palaces: it is not a single block but a sequence of four courtyards, each of them open to an ever narrower circle. Through the Gate of Salutation with its two octagonal towers one entered the second courtyard, where the divan sat and the palace kitchens worked; further on, beyond the Gate of Felicity, the sultan's private domain began. The harem, with more than two hundred rooms, was extended and rebuilt over centuries, and its earliest parts date from the sixteenth century. The treasury holds the Topkapi Dagger and the Spoonmaker's Diamond, and a separate pavilion holds the relics brought back after the conquest of Egypt in 1517. By the end of the nineteenth century the court had moved to Dolmabahce, and in 1924 the palace became a museum. From the gardens of the fourth courtyard a view opens onto the mouth of the Bosphorus and the Asian shore. The total area of the grounds exceeds seventy hectares, which makes Topkapi one of the largest palace complexes of its time.

On the map