🏨 Private Islamic Tour in Istanbul Activity

Private Islamic Tour in Istanbul

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From $175.00

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Price varies by group size

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Pricing Info:

Duration: 8 hours

Departs: Istanbul, Istanbul

Ticket Type: Mobile or paper ticket accepted

Free cancellation

Up to 24 hours in advance.

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Overview

Turkey has a rich heritage of religious and civil architecture, of mosques and tombs and of sites of faith. Istanbul has a rich cultural and religious heritage. On this full-day tour of Islamic Istanbul learn how Islam spread throughout the city with the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

• Ortakoy Mosque (Büyük Mecidiye Camii)
• Grand Çamlıca Mosque
• Sultanahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque)
• Suleymaniye Mosque
• Eyup Sultan Mosque
• Fatih Mosque

What's Included

Air-conditioned vehicle

All Fees and Taxes

What's Not Included

Lunch

Traveler Information

TRAVELER: Age: 0 - 120

Additional Info

Face masks required for guides in public areas
Gear/equipment sanitised between use
Hand sanitiser available to travellers and staff
Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
Public transportation options are available nearby
Regularly sanitised high-traffic areas
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
Wheelchair accessible

Face masks provided for travellers
Face masks required for travellers in public areas
Guides required to regularly wash hands
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Paid stay-at-home policy for staff with symptoms
Regular temperature checks for staff
Social distancing enforced throughout experience
Temperature checks for travellers upon arrival
Transportation vehicles regularly sanitised

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.

What To Expect

Ortakoy

On the site of the present-day Ortaköy Mosque there was previously a small mosque built in 1720 and ruined during the Patrona Halil Uprising in 1731.[2] The current mosque was commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I and built or completed around 1854 or 1856 (the exact dates of construction vary between scholarly sources).[a] Its architects were Armenian father and son Garabet Balyan and Nikoğos Balyan, who worked as a team and who also designed the nearby Dolmabahçe Palace and the Dolmabahçe Mosque in 1853–1855.[8][9][1]

60 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

CamlIca Mosque

The mosque's design was inspired by Classical Ottoman architecture and the works of Mimar Sinan.[2] The exterior of the mosque has been described as "a huge box attached to a colonnaded courtyard; on top of the box, domes and half-domes swarm around a squat central dome surmounted by a golden, crescent-shaped finial." The exterior design may be influenced by Sinan but "its use of concrete has relegated Sinan's structural devices – the dome-clusters, for example, that he used to diffuse the downward thrust of the main dome – to mere ornament." It was supposedly designed to rival Sinan's famous Suleymaniye Mosque, across the Bosphorus on the European side of Istanbul.[5]

60 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Blue Mosque

After the Peace of Zsitvatorok and the crushing loss in the 1603–18 war with Persia, Sultan Ahmed I decided to build a large mosque in Istanbul to reassert Ottoman power. It would be the first imperial mosque for more than forty years. While his predecessors had paid for their mosques with the spoils of war, Ahmed I procured funds from the Treasury, because he had not gained remarkable victories. The construction was started in 1609 and completed in 1616.

Having been paid from the public treasury rather than from the sultan's war booty, as was done normally, it caused the anger of the ulama, the Muslim jurists. The mosque was built on the site of the palace of the Byzantine emperors, in front of the basilica Hagia Sophia (at that time, the primary imperial mosque in Istanbul) and the hippodrome, a site of significant symbolic meaning as it dominated the city skyline from the south. Big parts of the south shore of the mosque rest on the foundations, the vaults of the old Grand Palace

60 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Suleymaniye Mosque

Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent chose the architect Mimar Sinan to create a mosque in memory of his son Şehzade (Crown Prince) Mehmed. Suleyman was so impressed with the ensuing Şehzade Mosque (Şehzade Cami) that he asked Sinan to design a mosque for himself too. This mosque would represent the pre-eminence of the Ottoman Empire.[1] In designing the Süleymaniye Mosque, Sinan took inspiration from the Hagia Sophia and the Bayezid II Mosque. [2] The mosque was built on the site of the old palace (Eski Saray) of Topkapi which was still in use at the time and had to be demolished. [3]

The Arabic inscription above the north portal of the mosque is carved in Thuluth script on three marble panels. It gives a foundation date of 1550 and an inauguration date of 1557. In reality the planning of the mosque began before 1550 and parts of the complex were not completed until after 1557.

60 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Eyup Sultan Mosque

The Eyüp Sultan Mosque (Turkish: Eyüp Sultan Camii) is in the Eyüp district of Istanbul, outside the city walls and near the Golden Horn. On a much older site, the present building dates from the beginning of the 19th century. The mosque complex includes a mausoleum marking the spot where Ebu Eyüp el-Ansari (Abu Ayyub al-Ansari), the standard-bearer and companion of the Prophet Muhammad, is said to have been buried.

Because of its particular sanctity, the mosque played a role in the coronation ceremony for new Ottoman Sultans, who came here - processing along the grand Cülus Yolu (Accession Way) - to be girded with the sword of Osman at the start of their reigns.[1] Today it's popularity as a pilgrimage destination means that it is full of shops selling religious items such as prayer rugs and beads. There is also an area set aside for the feeding of pigeons which is regarded as holy in Islam.

2 hours • Admission Ticket Free

Fatih Mosque and Complex

The Fatih Mosque complex was a religious and social building of unprecedented size and complexity built in Istanbul between 1463–1470 by order of Fatih Sultan Mehmed.[1] It was built on the site of the former Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles, which had been in poor condition since the Fourth Crusade, and was demolished to make way for the mosque.[1] The Church was the burial place of the Roman Emperor Constantine—before the construction of the mosque, his sarcophagus was placed in the middle of twelve other sarchophagi representing the twelve apostles, in the symbolic place of Christ.[2]

The Fatih Mosque was the first monumental project in the Ottoman imperial architectural tradition.[1] It was built by the Greek architect Atik Sinan[3] who should not be confused with the more famous Ottoman architect, Mimar Sinan.

2 hours • Admission Ticket Free

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