A'jia's remote location - a boutique hotel in a converted yalı on the shores of the Bosphorus - is actually an advantage. Far from the hustle of the city centre, the waterfront...

Opened in 1992 and fully renovated in 2001, this arts centre in the heart of Beyoĸlu boasts its own chamber music orchestra and a cosy, 135-seat, multi-purpose concert hall....

This hall on Taksim Square is the most likely place to find Turkish classical music. The Türk Müziĸi chorus performs in the lower auditorium most Sundays from autumn to late...

In northern Şişli, a short bus ride from Taksim Square, is a candy-pink Ottoman house in which Mustafa Kemal once stayed. It now contains three floors of memorabilia of the...

After being deposed in 1908, Sultan Abdül Hamit II spent the last years of his life here. Facing north-west, the palace gets little direct sunlight - it was intended as a...

National league champions in 2002-03 and Turkish Cup winners in 2006, the Beşiktaş 'Black Eagles' tend to play solid, unflamboyant football, though the team have led the trend...

More or less unchanged since it was built in 1741, Caĸaloĸlu - pronounced 'jaah-lo-loo' - is Istanbul's most famous hamam. It is often used as a backdrop for soap ads and pop...

Possibly the cleanest and most atmospheric hamam in town. Built in 1584 by Sinan, it was commissioned by Nurbanu, wife of Sultan Selim the Sot, as a charitable foundation for...

Europe's biggest mall, and the second largest in the world; its six storeys can seem confusing, especially in the absence of floor plans - there seems to be just one on each...

Erected in 1871 for Istanbul's Bulgarian community, this church is still used today by Macedonian Christians. It is constructed entirely from prefabricated iron sections, cast...

Most of the little local eateries on Güneşlibahçe are indistinguishable, but Çiya is so good - and so successful - that it is taking over most of them. Çiya Sofrası specialises...

The hotel is an annexe to a 19th-century palace on the Bosphorus built for Sultan Abdülaziz, an ill-fated ruler who killed himself with a pair of scissors in one of its...

Irrefutable evidence of an empire on its last legs, Dolmabahçe Palace was built for Abdül Mecit by Karabet Balyan and his son Nikoĸos. It was completed in 1855, whereupon the...

In front of the New Mosque is a pigeon-plagued plaza busy with itinerant street sellers and dominated on its south side by the high brick arch leading into the Egyptian Bazaar,...