The Spice Bazaar

Where the Galata Bridge lands on the old city side, beside the great grey domes of the New Mosque (Yeni Cami) and the ferry piers of Eminonu, stands the Misir Carsisi, the Egyptian Bazaar, better known to visitors as the Spice Bazaar. It was built in the seventeenth century as part of the New Mosque complex, its rents paying for the mosque's upkeep, and it took its name from the goods that arrived on ships from Egypt: spices, coffee, henna, dyes and medicinal herbs. Its two vaulted arms, set in an L shape, are lined with shops stacked with pyramids of red pepper flakes, sumac, saffron and cinnamon, bags of herbal teas and apple tea, dried apricots and figs, pistachios and hazelnuts, mountains of Turkish delight in every flavor, pomegranate molasses, cheeses, sausages, olive oil soaps and, in a few shops, caviar. It is smaller, brighter and easier to navigate than the Grand Bazaar, and the vendors, many of them multilingual, are generous with tastings. Prices inside the main halls are aimed at visitors, which is why many Istanbullus shop in the streets around its outer walls instead. There, the real food market of the old city spills out: the cheese and charcuterie shops, the delis, the coffee roaster Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi, whose queue for freshly ground Turkish coffee has been part of the street since the nineteenth century, and the garden and pet market along the side of the mosque. It is one of the most enjoyable places in the city to spend an hour with all your senses switched on.

When to go: the Spice Bazaar opens daily, including Sundays, when the Grand Bazaar is closed, and keeps roughly market hours; it is busiest late morning and early afternoon, when cruise and tour groups pass through. Early morning, when the shopkeepers are setting out their displays, is the most atmospheric. Entry is free. Note that the bazaar may close or reduce hours on the first days of the major religious holidays.

Buying well: taste before you buy, ask for prices by weight, and compare a couple of shops. Vacuum packing for travel is offered almost everywhere. Saffron is the classic trap: real saffron is expensive, so cheap saffron almost certainly is not. Turkish delight is best bought fresh, by weight, from a shop that makes or sells a lot of it; pistachio, pomegranate and rose are classics. For better prices and a more local scene, walk the streets around the outside of the bazaar, especially toward the coffee roaster and the cheese shops, where locals do their shopping. Bargaining is gentler here than in the Grand Bazaar, but asking for a better price on a large order is normal.

Make a food walk of it: from the Spice Bazaar, the old commercial streets uphill toward the Grand Bazaar are packed with specialist shops selling everything from kitchenware to wedding favors, and there are excellent places for a quick lunch of kebab, kofte, pide or fish. At the waterfront, the fish-sandwich boats by the Galata Bridge, grilled mackerel in bread, are an Istanbul classic. Visit the Rustem Pasha Mosque, hidden above shops a few minutes away and lined with some of the finest Iznik tiles in the city, and step into the New Mosque itself. Then walk across the Galata Bridge, past the fishermen, toward Karakoy and Galata, or catch a ferry from Eminonu to the Asian side.