The Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul

by timistravels on January 30, 2013

Dec. 27, 2012 (Spice) Dec. 29, 2012 (Grand)

The Istanbul Spice Bazaar is also called the Egyptian Bazaar. It was built in 1664 so has a LONG history. There are 88 spaces/shops that are in an “L” shaped building. There are also a number of shops outside on the W side of the building. There is also an animal section towards the E side which was interesting to explore as well. This bazaar was right at the base of the Galata Bridge, the bridge we crossed every day.

It is full of spices (of course), dried fruit, teas, cheese, meats, nuts, pickled veggies and olives!!!! Over the last few years, to the disapproval of locals and visitors, some of the shops now offer jewelry, carpets and other Istanbul treasures. The Grand Bazaar has many of these items so the feeling is to sale of items separate.

It is free to go to the Bazaar and it is open every day, so it was good filler for us. We also spent a lot of time walking around the streets near the Bazaar. Next to it is the New Mosque which helps round out the point.

The Grand Bazaar was one of the places I was really looking forward to exploring, but instead it ended up being a bit overwhelming. It is one of the oldest covered markets in the world and was built in 1455-56. Over the years many disasters have happened to the Bazaar including fires and earthquakes, the last quake in 1894.

There are over 4000 shops and as you can imagine there are many, many, many people that visit it daily, estimated to 250,000-400,000 a day! There are supposedly different sections of items including, jewelry (gold), clothing, furniture, carpets, lamps, leather, kitchen ware, pottery, etc. and I could see some division, but it is not as clearly delineated as you might expect.

I loved looking at the different items for sale, but did not like the pressure to buy items. I loved the smaller booths that were down some of the quieter arms of the big rows. It wasn’t so hectic down some of the side isles. I did not appreciate “hey lady look at ….” I really just wanted to look on my own without any pressure.

I did get a scarf, but after much looking and much pressure. Happily down one of the quiet rows we found a many with some great jewelry and I bought many pairs of earrings from him. We also got one pillowcase and lastly I got some ‘belly dancing carves with bling on them’ for my Zumba class.

We also enjoyed the shops on the streets surrounding the bazaar, especially the ones that had antiques. We got a ‘magic lantern’ (oil lamp) for our travel room back home.