Arasta Bazaar is a single row of shops built into the retaining wall behind the Blue Mosque. It was constructed in the seventeenth century as part of the mosque complex, its rents intended to maintain the building above it.
There are around seventy shops, dealing mainly in carpets, kilims, Iznik-style ceramics, textiles and jewellery. Because the street is narrow and one-directional, the atmosphere is calmer than the Grand Bazaar and nobody blocks your path.
The Great Palace Mosaic Museum is entered from this street; the Byzantine floor mosaics inside were uncovered during excavation of the bazaar itself.
From Hotel Sultania it is a walk of about eleven minutes.
Category:
Shopping