BOSPHORUS TOUR IN ISTANBUL

Schedule: Every day at 15:00 pm  Meeting point: Sirvan Sofrasi Restaurant Price: 15€ Languages: English & Spanish

Reservation

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The Bosphorus and Little Hagia Sophia Cruise Tour

This fantastic Bosphorus and Little Hagia Sophia Cruise Tour will guide you through enchanting views of Bosphorus and Little Hagia Sophia, one of Istanbul’s most famous Byzantine works. We are delighted to give you this exciting half day tour where you can learn about the buildings and the history of life around Istanbul’s two main sites: The Golden Horn and the Bosphorus Strait and appreciate Istanbul’s true beauty that can only be discovered from the sea.

After an easy online reservation process, all you need to do is show up at the meeting point, in front of the restaurant Sirvan Sofrasi, at 3:00 pm. You don’t even have to book if you’ve taken Free Tour Istanbul in the morning. You will be shown the meeting point for the cruise by the guide at the end of Free Tour Istanbul, a tour through the city’s historical center.

We will visit Little Hagia Sophia, an ancient Orthodox Church devoted to Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople between 531 and 536 AD, shortly before Hagia Sophia herself, within the first hour of the journey. It was built by Emperor Justinian and later converted during the Ottoman Empire into a mosque. This magnificent building is situated in the Kumkapi neighborhood of Fatih, next to the Marmara Sea and next to the remains of the Grand Palace and the Roman Hippodrome of Constantinople. Little Hagia Sophia, with its Central Dome and its exterior framework, is a secret treasure very similar to the Great Hagia Sophia, and some claim that the same architects, Isidoro de Mileto and Antemio de Tralles, designed them. Currently the building is isolated from the sea by the Sirkeci-Halkali railway and the coastal route.

The complex dome and the two-story marble colonies of the Little Hagia Sophia are a delight, so it’s time to take the Bosphorus Tour, a stunning sightseeing tour that everyone should have in Istanbul.

The Bosporus is a natural strait between two continents and two oceans, where ancient Ottoman buildings and nature surround one another. The cruise lasts about an hour and a half along the two coasts decorated with royal palaces, mosques, well-known colleges, huge 5-star hotels, the two suspension bridges and, above all, the country’s famous wooden houses: the “yalı,” the Istanbul celebrities’ residence, which are Victorian-style mansions. On the boat ride you will have the chance to see Istanbul ‘s two landmark continental cross bridges: the Bosphorus Bridge that stretches from Ortaköy, in Europe to Beylerbeyi, in Anatolia and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, between Kavacık and Hisarüstü.

During this amazing cruise trip, you will also explore The Golden Horn, a sea tongue at the entrance of the Bosphorus that grow 7.5 kilometers into the city. The area was selected by the Greek colonists to create Byzantium. The Golden Horn has many areas of tourism interest. The historic peninsula, along with other parts of Istanbul, passes through the Fener and Balat neighborhoods, designated a World Heritage Site in 1985. Fener, called the city’s Greek district, which has, for example, the Sveti Stefan Bulgarian Church, built of iron in Vienna and relocated, piece by piece, to its present location, where it assembled; the Mosque of the Rose, an ancient Byzantine church transformed into a mosque after the Ottoman invasion, the seat of the Fener

Greek Patriarchate, a study and contemplation centre of the Orthodox Church, or the Red Schoolhouse, a beautiful brick building of that colour.

This tour also features the Ferruh mosque, and Kethuda Ahrida Synagogue, built in the fifteenth century, in Balat, the former Jewish region.

After the Golden Horn, you will be amazed by the Egyptian Bazaar, the second largest indoor market in the world after the Grand Bazaar, one of the oldest markets in the city, also known as the spice bazaar. The bazaar is in the busy area of Eminönü, near the New Mosque.

The Bosphorus and Little Hagia Sophia Cruise Tour is a great way of exploring all of Bosphorus ‘s wonders. From the outside, you will see the Rumeli Fortress. Fatih Sultan Mehmet (“The Conqueror”) decided to build a fortress just in front of Anadolu Hisarı Fortress (Fortress Asia) between 1451 and 1452 in order to conquer the town and prevent reinforcements from arriving through the Black Sea and the Danube to the Byzantine Constantinople. The fortress has been used as a museum and open-air theater for concerts and summer festivals since 1960.

There is a chance to get off in Asia at the end of the journey on this spectacular boat ride, where you can see the finest sunset in Istanbul by the sea in carpeted cafes. Here you’ll lie down and see Constantinople ‘s golden color trying the hookah savoring the popular Turkish tea.

If you’re a first-time or regular visitor, a day in Istanbul is never complete without the Bosphorus Tour.

Attention

Pre-booking is mandatory.