Istanbul Where Two Domes Face Each Other Across the Old Race Track

An octagonal dome sits on eight columns at the north end of the square, a few steps from the Sultanahmet tram. This is the German Fountain, Alman Çeşmesi, assembled here after Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany visited Istanbul in 1898. A bronze German inscription records the fountain as a gift in the name of the German Empire, in memory of that visit; an Ottoman verse inscription also commemorates the gift. The structure was built in Germany, shipped in parts, and put together on this site, opposite the mausoleum of Sultan Ahmed I, at the northern end of the Hippodrome. The official opening was planned for 1 September 1900, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sultan Abdülhamid II's accession, then postponed because the work was still unfinished. The ceremony took place on 27 January 1901, Wilhelm II's birthday. Look up into the dome if you can reach a view of the interior. The ceiling is finished in gold mosaic, on an octagonal neo-Byzantine plan: a copper-covered dome carried on eight columns, with the fountain at the centre. People still sit on the steps around it, and the tram still runs a few metres away. From the steps, look south along the paved square. That long axis is the old Hippodrome of Constantinople, later called Atmeydanı, the Horse Square, and along its central line you will soon see an Egyptian obelisk, a twisted bronze column, and, further on, a built stone obelisk. As you walk, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque comes into view on your left, and Hagia Sophia further ahead on the right. The German Consulate in Istanbul still describes the pavilion as a commemorative gift from that 1898 visit, standing where the race track once opened to the north. Take a moment here at the fountain, then walk south along that line of monuments, about 170 metres, to the pink granite shaft standing on a carved marble base. That is the Obelisk of Theodosius, and the next stop.

A pink granite shaft rises from a carved marble base in the middle of the square, its hieroglyphs still sharp in the light. This is the Obelisk of Theodosius, an Egyptian monument that Emperor Theodosius I had re-erected here in 390, on the central reservation of the Hippodrome, the spina that divided the race track. Pharaoh Thutmose III first raised this stone at Karnak, south of the seventh pylon of the temple, in the fifteenth century BCE. Only the upper part of the shaft stands here now, about twenty metres of granite on a two-level marble pedestal. Reliefs are cut into that two-level marble pedestal; you can walk around it and look at the carved scenes at eye level. About forty metres further south on the same axis, a darker bronze spiral rises from a low stone setting. That is the Serpent Column, Yılanlı Sütun, the twisted bronze base of a gold tripod that the Greek cities dedicated at the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi after the Battle of Plataea in 479 BCE. The gold tripod was later taken from Delphi; the twisting bronze shaft is what remains. Constantine the Great had the column moved from Delphi to Constantinople in the fourth century. Three snakes once formed the shaft, their heads supporting the bowl; the coiled body is what still stands here. Further south still, on the same line, a built stone monument, the Walled Obelisk, marks the far end of the spina. You can take it in from here; the walk turns east before that far end. The open ground under your feet is the Hippodrome itself, later called Atmeydanı, the Horse Square, and it is listed with the Historic Areas of Istanbul on the UNESCO World Heritage List. From here, turn east toward the mosque with six minarets, about 150 metres, and go to the visitor entrance in the courtyard of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Blue Mosque.

Six minarets rise above a cascade of domes, just east of the old race track. This is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, widely called the Blue Mosque for the blue İznik tiles that cover its walls. Sultan Ahmed I commissioned the work in 1609 from his chief architect, Sedefkâr Mehmet Ağa, a student of Sinan. The official mosque site dates the building to 1609 and 1617; the Turkish Ministry of Culture dates the surrounding complex, the külliye, from 1609 to 1620. Stand in the courtyard first and look up. Smaller domes step down from the central dome, and the six minarets are set in a way the ministry portal describes as new for their time: four at the corners of the prayer hall, and two at the corners of this courtyard. Inside the hall, when visitor access is open, the walls carry those blue underglaze tiles from İznik and Kütahya. The mosque stands in the Historic Areas of Istanbul, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985, in the Sultanahmet zone of that listing. Visitor access is free, seven days a week, from 08:30 to 17:00 between 1 October and 31 March, and until 19:00 between 1 April and 30 September, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. On Fridays, visitors may enter from 14:30. Access closes from 30 minutes before midday and afternoon prayers until 15 minutes after the prayer ends; check the day's times on the Presidency of Religious Affairs timetable, or on the board at the gate. This is a working mosque. Cover shoulders and knees in the courtyard as well as in the hall; women should cover their hair; loan garments are at the entrance and should be returned to the same booth. Speak quietly, and take your shoes off before you step onto the prayer-hall carpet. If the hall is closed for prayer, wait in the courtyard or come back after the next window. When you have had a look, leave by the courtyard and walk north-east across the garden, about 220 metres, until you have both domes in view: the Blue Mosque behind you, and Hagia Sophia ahead.

Stand in the garden between the two buildings and turn slowly. To the south-west, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque lifts six minarets over a stack of smaller domes. To the north-east, Hagia Sophia presents a broader, older profile: a great central dome, half-domes stepping down, heavy buttresses of brick and stone, and four minarets. The two buildings face each other across this open ground, with the old Hippodrome square still running along the west side, the line you have just walked from the German Fountain to the obelisk. This garden is the public space between those two monuments, in the Historic Areas of Istanbul listed by UNESCO in 1985. The open ground to the west is Atmeydanı, the Horse Square, the same Hippodrome we walked along at the fountain and the obelisk. After the Ottoman court was established in this part of the city, the square kept its ceremonial use under that Turkish name: horses, processions, and public gatherings on the line of the old track. Today the garden is full of people moving between the two façades, sitting on the grass, and lining up for photographs with both domes in the same frame. If you are walking on a Friday, or close to midday or afternoon prayer, this is a good place to wait out a closure at either building. From here you can already see that the south façade of Hagia Sophia is close. The paid entrance used by foreign visitors stands on the far side of that building, on the east, beside the Fountain of Ahmed III, which we will reach after the cistern. If you already have a gallery ticket, keep it for the east side; the booth stands over there, on that far façade. The next narration stays on the exterior of Hagia Sophia. Stay on the public paths and walk about 220 metres to the north-east, until you are standing in front of the building, looking up at the dome, the half-domes and the minarets.

The south side of Hagia Sophia fills the view: a central dome on pendentives, half-domes stepping down, brick and stone buttresses, and four Ottoman minarets at the corners. This is the third church on the site. The second church burned in the Nika revolt of 13 and 14 January 532. Emperor Justinian gave the rebuilding to Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus; work began in 532, and the church was opened on 27 December 537. In 1453, Ottoman forces under Sultan Mehmed II entered Constantinople. Hagia Sophia, which had been the city's cathedral, was thereafter used as a mosque. Hagia Sophia was built as a church and opened in 537. In 1453 it began to be used as a mosque, and Ottoman minarets and fittings were added in the centuries that followed. In 1934 a Council of Ministers decision opened it as a museum. In July 2020 that decision was cancelled by Turkey's Council of State, and Hagia Sophia has been a working mosque again since 24 July 2020. The official name in use today is the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque. Since 15 January 2024, foreign visitors follow a separate paid route into the upper gallery, with its own entrance and ticket booth beside the Fountain of Ahmed III. The official museum page, still worded for 2025 when checked in November 2026, lists visiting hours as 09:00 to 19:30, with the visiting area closed from 12:00 to 14:00 on Fridays; another official seller lists 12:30 to 14:30, so read the sign at the gate. Women should wear a head covering; covers are sold at the booth. Respect people at prayer, and do not photograph worshippers. The gallery route uses ramps. The official page asks visitors with impaired mobility to use the Turkish Citizen Entrance with their tickets. The paid entrance stands on the east side, across from the Fountain of Ahmed III, which we will reach after the cistern. From here, walk west, about 175 metres, toward Divan Yolu, to a low fragment of masonry under a shelter. That stone is the Milion.

A short stretch of stone masonry stands under a shelter, west of Hagia Sophia, near the start of Divan Yolu. This is the Milion, Milyon Taşı, and it is easy to miss if you keep your eyes on the road. The Istanbul Governorate describes the stone as the zero point from which the Eastern Roman Empire measured distances. Archaeological guides identify it as Constantinople's counterpart to Rome's Golden Milestone, the Milliarium Aureum, the monument from which road distances to other cities of the empire were measured. What remains is a modest fragment, a few steps from the pavement, under a simple shelter, and the modern road runs on past it toward Beyazıt. Stand beside it for a moment and look back at Hagia Sophia, then along the street. You are at the western edge of the square, at the point where the square meets the road toward Beyazıt. The Governorate still places this stone on its walking route from Eminönü toward Beyazıt, on the way west from Sultanahmet Square. In Rome, surveyors measured distances from the Golden Milestone in the Forum. Constantinople also had a zero milestone of that kind, and this is the stone that official Istanbul pages still point out for that role. Look for the low masonry under the shelter, close to the pavement, rather than walking on toward Beyazıt; the fragment is small, and traffic on Divan Yolu can pull your attention past it. From here the Basilica Cistern is only about 55 metres north, on Yerebatan Caddesi, about a minute on foot. Turn north, keep the shelter behind you, and walk that short block to the street-level entrance building. The cistern itself is underground, and it is ticketed. If you plan to go in, buy your ticket at the official desk and treat the interior as a separate visit. If you are staying outside, the next narration still starts at that entrance, and then we turn east around Hagia Sophia.

The entrance building on Yerebatan Caddesi sits almost at street level, a short walk north of the Milion. Under your feet, a sixth-century reservoir opens out on hundreds of columns standing in water: the Basilica Cistern, Yerebatan Sarnıcı, built under Emperor Justinian in the years around the Nika revolt of 532, on a site associated with an earlier basilica, which is how the cistern got its name. The Ministry of Culture and a published survey of the building both give the same count: 336 columns, each about nine metres high, set in twelve rows of twenty-eight, with about 4.8 metres between them. If you go down inside, you walk among those columns in shallow water and cooler air than the street. Two column bases in the north-west corner are carved as Medusa heads; look for them if you have a ticket, in that far corner of the hall. Even from the street you can see that the reservoir sits just below the modern road, a few steps from Hagia Sophia and the Milion. Come back out to this same street entrance when you have finished inside, so you can pick up the walk from here. From 15 November 2026 the published hours, notified to TÜRSAB by the current operator, are 09:00 to 18:00 in winter, from 1 November to 31 March, and 09:00 to 19:00 in summer, from 1 April to 31 October, seven days a week. The cistern is ticketed; read the current price at the official desk, because the operator changed in 2026 and older printed figures may no longer apply. This narration stays at the street entrance; the interior is a separate, ticketed visit. When you are ready to go on, walk east around the north side of Hagia Sophia, about 240 metres, keeping the building on your right. In about five minutes you will come to the cobbled square in front of Topkapı's outer gate. The square roofed fountain in that space is the Fountain of Ahmed III, and the Hagia Sophia foreign-visitor ticket booth stands across from it.

A square, roofed fountain stands in the cobbled space between Hagia Sophia and the outer gate of Topkapı Palace, a sabīl, a public water kiosk, at each of its four corners. This is the Fountain of Ahmed III, built for the sultan of that name, a free-standing pavilion of marble and tile set right on the palace threshold. The long verse inscription that wraps the façades is by the Divan poet Seyyid Vehbî; a closing line is attributed to Ahmed III himself. The inscription dates the fountain to the year 1141 of the Hijra, 1728 to 1729. The official Topkapı page gives 1728; a document from April 1729 shows that white marble was still being requested, so the work was unfinished in that spring. Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha is credited with urging the project. The official Topkapı page tells visitors to look at this fountain just outside the Imperial Gate. Walk around all four sides if the square is not too crowded: the wide eaves, the carved decoration, the tiles, and the calligraphy were meant to be read in the round, as a public gift of water facing the east side of Hagia Sophia. The temporary gate and ticket booth for foreign visitors to Hagia Sophia's upper gallery stand across from this fountain. If you have a gallery ticket, this is the place to use it, unless the Friday midday closure applies. Official hours on the museum page, still worded for 2025 when checked in November 2026, are 09:00 to 19:30, with a Friday pause around midday prayer; read the sign on the day. Tickets are sold at the booth and through the official seller, DEM Museums; children under eight enter free with identification, and the Museum Pass is not valid here. The Imperial Gate of the palace, Bâb-ı Hümâyun, is only about 45 metres from here, the great outer doorway facing the fountain. Walk over to it next.

The outer ceremonial gate of Topkapı Palace faces the fountain: Bâb-ı Hümâyun, the Imperial Gate, standing at the palace end of Soğukçeşme Sokağı. It is the public threshold of the palace that Sultan Mehmed II built as the New Palace, Saray-ı Cedid, between 1460 and 1478. Ottoman sultans lived here until the mid-nineteenth century, into the reign of Abdülmecid I. The palace became a museum in 1924, and it belongs to the Historic Areas of Istanbul, inscribed by UNESCO in 1985. Through the gate is the First Court, with the church of Hagia Irene and, further on, the ticket office before the Second Court. This walk stops at the gate. If you do go in, come back out to this gate afterward; the last stop is still the park edge, a short walk from here. The Harem, the Treasury and the kitchens are a separate, ticketed visit, and they take a good deal of time. Official hours on the museum page, checked in November 2026, are 09:00 to 18:00 in both the summer and winter listings, with the box office closing earlier, at 17:30 in the summer period on the page as checked; confirm the current hours and ticket price on the official page if you plan to go in. From the outside you can already see how the gate faces the Fountain of Ahmed III, and how the east side of Hagia Sophia closes the same small square. The paid gallery entrance for foreign visitors sits in that space, across from the fountain, if you still intend to use it. When you are ready to finish the walk, leave the square at the fountain, turn toward Alemdar Caddesi, and follow that street or the line of the palace walls north-west, with the palace on your right. It is about 300 metres, five or six minutes on foot, to the south-west edge of Gülhane Park, where the railings and trees mark the old outer gardens of the palace.

The railings and trees at this south-west edge of Gülhane Park mark the start of the old outer gardens of Topkapı Palace. The park takes its name from the roses once grown here: gülhane, the rose house. Paths run on under the trees, downhill through the former palace gardens, and the city opens out beyond the railings after the tight stone square at the Imperial Gate. You have walked about two kilometres from the German Fountain, along the old race track, between the two mosques, past the cistern and the palace gate, to this garden edge. The grounds were laid out as a public park and opened in 1912 by the then city prefect, the şehremini Cemil Pasha. Both the Istanbul Governorate and the Fatih District Governorate record that opening, and both note a later municipal restoration: the park was closed in 2001 and reopened in 2003. It is public ground now; confirm today's hours on the gate if you want to walk in, and give yourself time if you do, because the gardens run on well beyond this edge. On 3 November 1839, an imperial edict was read here in Gülhane by Mustafa Reşid Pasha, in the name of Sultan Abdülmecid. It is still called the Gülhane Hatt-ı Hümayunu, and it opened the Tanzimat reform period. This is the last stop of the walk. The shade under the trees is a good place to sit for a few minutes before you decide. If you go in, stay on the public paths through the old outer gardens; the park continues well beyond this south-west edge. If you are moving on, the Gülhane tram stop lies a short walk north of the railings, on the same T1 line that brought you to Sultanahmet at the start. That stop will take you back toward the square, or onward toward Eminönü and the Golden Horn. The Sultanahmet stop, where we began at the German Fountain, is a few stops back along the same line.