Hodegon Monastery

The Ahırkap Feneri, a historical lighthouse still in use, is located at the southern Seraglio Point on the Rumelian coast of Bosporus' south entrance, in Ahırkapı neighborhood of Istanbul's Fatih district, Turkey. It is across from the Kadıköy İnciburnu Feneri, which is on the Anatolian coast of the strait at a distance of 1.5 nmi (2.8 km). A line connecting the two lighthouses marks the southern boundary of the Port of Istanbul.

Mangana (Greek: Μάγγανα) was one of the quarters of Byzantine-era Constantinople. Located on the easternmost edge of the Sirkeci peninsula in which the city is located, it housed an imperial palace, arsenal and several churches and charitable establishments throughout the middle and late Byzantine periods.

The Fountain of Sultan Ahmed III (Turkish: III. Ahmet Çeşmesi) is a fountain in a Turkish rococo structure in the great square in front of the Imperial Gate of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. It was built under Ottoman sultan Ahmed III in 1728, in the style of the Tulip period. It was a social centre and gathering place during the Ottoman period of Constantinople.

Hagia Irene (Greek: Αγία Ειρήνη) or Hagia Eirene (Medieval Greek: Ἁγία Εἰρήνη Greek pronunciation: [aˈʝia iˈrini], "Holy Peace", Turkish: Aya İrini), sometimes known also as Saint Irene, is an Eastern Orthodox church located in the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. It is one of the few churches in Istanbul that has not been converted into a mosque, as it was used as an arsenal for storing weapons until the 19th century. The Hagia Irene today operates as a museum and concert hall.

The Topkapı Palace (Turkish: Topkapı Sarayı; Ottoman Turkish: طوپقپو سرايى, romanized: Ṭopḳapu Sarāyı, lit. 'Cannon Gate Palace'), or the Seraglio, is a large museum in the east of the Fatih district of Istanbul in Turkey. In the 15th and 16th centuries it served as the main residence and administrative headquarters of the Ottoman sultans. Construction, ordered by the Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, began in 1459, six years after the conquest of Constantinople. Topkapı was originally called the "New Palace" (Yeni Saray or Saray-ı Cedîd-i Âmire) to distinguish it from the Old Palace (Eski Saray or Sarây-ı Atîk-i Âmire) in Beyazıt Square. It was given the name Topkapı, meaning Cannon Gate, in the 19th century. The complex expanded over the centuries, with major renovations after the 1509 earthquake and the 1665 fire. The palace complex consists of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings. Female members of the Sultan's family lived in the harem, and leading state officials, including the Grand Vizier, held meetings in the Imperial Council building. After the 17th century, Topkapı gradually lost its importance. The sultans of that period preferred to spend more time in their new palaces along the Bosphorus. In 1856 Sultan Abdulmejid I decided to move the court to the newly built Dolmabahçe Palace. Topkapı retained some of its functions, including the imperial treasury, library and mint. After the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, a government decree dated April 3, 1924 transformed Topkapı into a museum. Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism now administers the Topkapı Palace Museum. The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, but only the most important are accessible to the public as of 2020, including the Ottoman Imperial Harem and the treasury, called hazine where the Spoonmaker's Diamond and the Topkapi Dagger are on display. The museum collection also includes Ottoman clothing, weapons, armor, miniatures, religious relics, and illuminated manuscripts such as the Topkapi manuscript. Officials of the ministry as well as armed guards of the Turkish military guard the complex. The Topkapı Palace forms a part the Historic Areas of Istanbul, a group of sites in Istanbul that UNESCO recognised as a World Heritage Site in 1985.

Cankurtaran is an indefinitely closed railway station on the Istanbul suburban, in Istanbul, Turkey. It is located in the neighborhood of Cankurtaran in the historic peninsula of İstanbul. The station is located on Şadırvan Street. Cankurtaran is just a block north of Kennedy Boulevard, along with the shoreline and a few blocks south of the Hagia Sophia and the Imperial Gate to the Topkapı Palace. The station was built in 1955 by the Turkish State Railways to be used by commuter trains operating between Sirkeci and Halkalı.Cankurtaran is located 2.1 km (1.3 mi) from Sirkeci Terminal. Cankurtaran was indefinitely closed in 2013 due to the rehabilitation and construction of the new Marmaray line.

The Column of Leo was a 5th-century AD Roman honorific column in Constantinople. Built for Leo I, Augustus of the East from 7 February 457 to 18 January 474, the column stood in the Forum of Leo, known also as the Pittakia. It was a marble column, without flutes, composed of drums with a Corinthian capital, surmounted by a statue of the emperor.The column no longer exists, but fragments belonging to it were discovered in the mid-20th century in the grounds of the Topkapı Palace, including the capital and the impost block atop it, a complete column drum and some parts of a second, and the statue's pedestal, which was originally separated from the impost by a missing plinth. The remains are visible in the second courtyard of the Topkapı complex. The column's own socle, pedestal, and base are lost. The statue too may be lost, or it may be the bronze statue now known as the Colossus of Barletta in Italy.

The Tiled Kiosk (Turkish: Çinili Köşk) is a pavilion set within the outer walls of Topkapı Palace and dates from 1472 as shown on the tile inscript above the main entrance. It was built by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II as a pleasure palace or kiosk. It is located in the most outer parts of the palace, next to Gülhane Park. It was also called Glazed Kiosk (Sırça Köşk).It was used as the Imperial Museum (Ottoman Turkish: Müze-i Hümayun, Turkish: İmparatorluk Müzesi) between 1875 and 1891. In 1953, it was opened to the public as a museum of Turkish and Islamic art, and was later incorporated into the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, housing the Museum of Islamic Art. The pavilion contains many examples of İznik tiles and Seljuk pottery.

Hagia Sophia (Turkish: Ayasofya; Koinē Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, romanized: Hagía Sophía; Latin: Sancta Sophia, lit. 'Holy Wisdom'), officially known as the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (Turkish: Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi) and formerly as the Church of Holy Wisdom (Greek: Ναός της Αγίας του Θεού Σοφίας, romanized: Naós tis Ayías tou Theoú Sofías), is a Late Antique place of worship in Istanbul, designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. Built in 537 as the patriarchal cathedral of the imperial capital of Constantinople, it was the largest Christian church of the eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine Empire) and the Eastern Orthodox Church, except during the Latin Empire from 1204 to 1261, when it temporarily became a Roman Catholic cathedral. In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, it was converted into a mosque. In 1935, the Republic of Turkey established it as a museum. In 2020, it was reconverted into a mosque. Built by the eastern Roman emperor Justinian I as the Christian cathedral of Constantinople for the state church of the Roman Empire between 532 and 537, the church was then the world's largest interior space and among the first to employ a fully pendentive dome. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture". The present Justinianic building was the third church of the same name to occupy the site, as the prior one had been destroyed in the Nika riots. As the episcopal see of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, it remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. Beginning with subsequent Byzantine architecture, Hagia Sophia became the paradigmatic Orthodox church form, and its architectural style was emulated by Ottoman mosques a thousand years later. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world" and as an architectural and cultural icon of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox civilization.The religious and spiritual centre of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand years, the church was dedicated to the Holy Wisdom. It was where the excommunication of Patriarch Michael I Cerularius was officially delivered by Humbert of Silva Candida, the envoy of Pope Leo IX in 1054, an act considered the start of the East–West Schism. In 1204, it was converted during the Fourth Crusade into a Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire, before being returned to the Eastern Orthodox Church upon the restoration of the Byzantine Empire in 1261. The doge of Venice who led the Fourth Crusade and the 1204 Sack of Constantinople, Enrico Dandolo, was buried in the church. After the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, it was converted to a mosque by Mehmed the Conqueror and became the principal mosque of Istanbul until the 1616 construction of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Upon its conversion, the bells, altar, iconostasis, ambo, and baptistery were removed, while iconography, such as the mosaic depictions of Jesus, Mary, Christian saints and angels were removed or plastered over. Islamic architectural additions included four minarets, a minbar and a mihrab. The Byzantine architecture of the Hagia Sophia served as inspiration for many other religious buildings including the Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki, Panagia Ekatontapiliani, the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Rüstem Pasha Mosque and the Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex. The patriarchate moved to the Church of the Holy Apostles, which became the city's cathedral. The complex remained a mosque until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum under the secular Republic of Turkey, and the building was Turkey's most visited tourist attraction in 2015 and 2019. In July 2020, the Council of State annulled the 1934 decision to establish the museum, and the Hagia Sophia was reclassified as a mosque. The 1934 decree was ruled to be unlawful under both Ottoman and Turkish law as Hagia Sophia's waqf, endowed by Sultan Mehmed, had designated the site a mosque; proponents of the decision argued the Hagia Sophia was the personal property of the sultan. This redesignation drew condemnation from the Turkish opposition, UNESCO, the World Council of Churches, the International Association of Byzantine Studies, and many international leaders.

Soğukçeşme Sokağı (literally: Street of the Cold Fountain) is a small street with historic houses in the Sultanahmet neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey, sandwiched in-between the Hagia Sophia and Topkapı Palace. The car-free zone street is named after the fountain situated at its end towards Gülhane Park. The wooden, two or three-storey Ottoman houses consisting of four to ten rooms date to the 19th to 20th century, and have been restored with the initiative of Çelik Gülersoy in 1985-1986. Called "Ayasofya Konakları" (Hagia Sophia Mansions), nine of the houses are part of the hotel Hagia Sofia Mansions Istanbul, Curio Collection by Hilton. The houses are named after the flower shrubs next to them as "Yaseminli Ev" (Jasmine House), "Mor Salkımlı Ev" (Wisteria sinensis House), "Hanımeli Ev" (Honeysuckle House) etc. The buildings are decorated in the 19th-century style with furniture including such items as beds and consoles, silk curtains, velvet armchairs and gilded mirrors. Most notable guest of the hostel was Queen Sofía of Spain, who stayed in the spring of 2000 for four nights.The birthplace of Turkey's 6th president Fahri Korutürk (1903–1987) is also situated in this street. One of the houses hosts the library "İstanbul Kitaplığı" with over 10,000 books about Istanbul owned by the Çelik Gülersoy Foundation. On one end of the street towards Gülhane Park is a Byzantine cistern, which houses the "Sarnıç Restaurant" today.

The Historic Areas of Istanbul are a group of sites in the capital district of Fatih in the city of Istanbul, Turkey. These areas were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985. This World Heritage Site includes buildings and structures such as the Sarayburnu, the Topkapı Palace, the Hagia Sophia, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Hagia Irene, Zeyrek Mosque, Süleymaniye Mosque, Little Hagia Sophia and the Walls of Constantinople.

Old Darülfünun building (Turkish: Eski Darülfünun Binası) was a university building constructed next to Haghia Sophia in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century. It was a three-storey building in neo-Renaissance style that had a great visual impact on Istanbul's urban character. The building's designer was Swiss architect Gaspare Fossati (1809—1883), who was also responsible for extensive restoration of Hagia Sophia. After its construction as a university (Ottoman Turkish: Darülfünun) building in 1854, it was passed on to the Ministries of Finance and then on to the Ministry of Justice and Foundation. Later it was also used by the Ottoman Parliament, and finally served as Palace of Justice. It was destroyed by a fire in 1933.