Sogukcesme Street runs between the outer wall of Topkapi Palace and the back of Hagia Sophia, and it is barely two hundred metres long. The wooden houses along it were built in the nineteenth century for palace staff, fell into ruin, and were restored in the 1980s.
The result is a street with no traffic, no shopfronts and very little noise, a few steps from two of the busiest monuments in Istanbul. At the lower end there is a small Roman cistern, now used as a restaurant.
There is nothing to buy a ticket for. It takes five minutes to walk and is at its best early, when the light comes down the slope and the street is still empty. From Hotel Sultania it is a few minutes away, on the natural route up to the palace.
Category:
History