This Istanbul tourist map marks 10 top sights, 30 hidden gems and a 6.4 km walking route from Topkapı Palace to the Pera Palace Hotel, across the Galata Bridge. It is free to view, print and download.
Download the printable PDF (1.6 MB) >
Each sight is described in full on the page about tourist attractions in Istanbul.
The numbers below match the pins on the map, the PDF and the video. The first 8 sights are seen on foot, in order, from Sultanahmet over the Galata Bridge to Pera; the last 2 are a tram or bus ride away, on the Bosphorus and up the Golden Horn.
Marked in orange: 30 smaller sights worth a detour. 19 of them sit inside the map frame, one sharing its pin with the Basilica Cistern; the other 11 lie outside it and appear only in the PDF, which lists all 30 with their addresses. Below are the other 18 on the map, then the two nearest outside it.
The PDF is the same map on four A4 pages. Page 1 holds the map with the numbered legend, how to get around and the licence. Pages 2 and 3 describe the 10 sights with the full address and access, plus the transport for the 2 outside the centre. The 30 hidden gems follow with their addresses, and page 4 closes with seven neighbourhoods. In English, 1.6 MB. Edition: October 2026.
Start of a 6.4 km (4.0 miles) route, about 1 h 20 on foot without the visits, at the palace gate on Babıhümayun Caddesi, behind Hagia Sophia. Mehmed II built the palace between 1460 and 1478; it is ticketed and closed on Tuesdays, 1 January and the first day of the Ramadan feast. Walk back out through the gate, 0.5 km, to Ayasofya Meydanı.
On the north-east side of Sultanahmet Square. Justinian finished the basilica in 537; it served as a museum for most of the 20th century and has been a mosque again since 2020, so modest dress is expected. The Blue Mosque faces it across the square, 0.5 km on foot.
Sultan Ahmed I built it between 1609 and 1616 on the edge of the old Hippodrome, where the Obelisk of Theodosius and the Serpent Column still stand. It is a working mosque, with six minarets and a courtyard as wide as the prayer hall. The Basilica Cistern is 0.5 km back to the north.
Under Yerebatan Caddesi, across the street from Hagia Sophia. Justinian's engineers roofed the reservoir in the 6th century on 336 reused columns, and raised walkways lead past the two Medusa heads. Follow Divanyolu west, 1.1 km, to the Grand Bazaar.
Mehmed II founded the covered market in the 1450s around the stone Cevahir Bedesten; jewellers, carpet dealers and lamp sellers still keep to their own lanes among some 60 streets, and it is free to walk in. Leave by the Beyazıt side and climb north, 1.0 km, to the Süleymaniye.
Mimar Sinan's mosque crowns the third hill; Suleiman the Magnificent and Hürrem Sultan lie in the walled cemetery behind the prayer hall. The longest leg, 2.1 km and 27 min, runs down through Eminönü and over the Galata Bridge on foot, then up the Galata hill to the tower.
The Genoese finished the tower in 1348 at the top of their walled colony; the conical cap was rebuilt in the 1960s. The balcony under the roof looks over the historic peninsula, the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. It is ticketed and open daily. Walk on up, 0.8 km, to Meşrutiyet Caddesi.
The route ends at Meşrutiyet Caddesi 52 in Tepebaşı. Begun in 1892 and opened in 1895 for Orient Express passengers, the hotel keeps its lift, the Kubbeli tea lounge and the Orient Bar, and Room 101 is a museum to Atatürk. Şişhane station on metro M2 is the nearest way back.
The centre is walkable: the 8 stops on the route cover 6.4 km, about 1 h 20 without the visits, and the longest leg is the 2.1 km from the Süleymaniye Mosque down through Eminönü and over the Galata Bridge to the Galata Tower. The hills of the old city and of Galata are steep in places.
Tram T1 of Metro İstanbul runs along most of the route: Gülhane and Sultanahmet for the first four stops, Beyazıt-Kapalıçarşı for the Grand Bazaar and Eminönü for the ferry piers, then over the Galata Bridge to Karaköy. Metro M2 stops at Şişhane, near the Pera Palace Hotel, and the Tünel funicular, run by IETT, climbs from Karaköy to Beyoğlu. İstanbulkart cards are sold and topped up at the Biletmatik machines in the stations.
Sights outside the walking route:
Three of the numbered sights can be booked ahead. The Topkapı Palace ticket includes the Harem and an audio guide app; the Basilica Cistern ticket is for one timed session on the raised walkways; and the Dolmabahçe Palace ticket covers the state rooms with an audio guide device, but not the Harem.
The map, the PDF, the walking route and the texts are © 2026 World Tourist Office and free to copy, share, print and adapt, also commercially, under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. The only condition is a credit to World Tourist Office with a link to this page.
The photos are not covered by this licence: they are © their respective owners, used here under their own licences, and may not be extracted or reused separately. Where a photo carries its own credit line, that credit and its licence apply. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), tiles © OpenFreeMap: keep that credit too. The World Tourist Office name and logo are trademarks and are not licensed.
Two photos in the PDF and the video carry their own credit: Pera Palace Hotel, "Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah" by qwesy qwesy, licensed under CC BY 3.0; Miniaturk, "Miniatürk genel görünüm" by VikiPicture, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Credit to copy: Istanbul Tourist Map by World Tourist Office, touristoffice.org/istanbul-tourist-map/, CC BY 4.0. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
