Although the government has moved to Ankara and Istanbul has expanded rapidly to becoming the enormous city we have today with the centre of business now in huge shiny buildings elsewhere in the city, Eminönü is still buzzing. It still has the busiest ferry crossings for the Bosphorus and for the Marmara Sea, still has the only car ferry across the Bosphorus and still has the only mainline railway terminus (where trains can be caught to Eastern Thrace (Trakya) and Europe) and people flood into the area on boats, buses, or the light metro from Aksaray.
During the daytime the area is packed with merchants and their customers, hordes of shoppers and many tourists. Add to this a number of key government buildings including the governor’s office and the main campus of Istanbul University in Beyazit. At night it is very, very quiet. There is some housing in Eminönü but most of the buildings are offices, shops and workshops, and if you do happen to be there in the evening the contrast with the daytime is eery and somewhat menacing. In the daytime there are 2,000,000 people in Eminönü, but the district has only 30,000 residents. The people that do live in Eminönü are working class and conservative.
Places you must see in Eminönü
Eminönü has many historical mosques and buildings, many of Istanbul’s best-known landmarks. Recent development has improved Eminönü greatly and many of its winding streets which can at first seem imposing, have been developed and improved, while Eminönü has started to repair the many mosques.
- Sultanahmet - which contains Topkapı Palace, Aya Sofia, the Blue Mosque and Aya Irini among about a thousand other incredible pieces of architecture;
- Süleymaniye - the huge mosque complex of Suleyman the Magnificent;
- Yeni Cami (The new mosque) - the mosque that dominates the waterfront by the Galata Bridge; there is a wide open space in front where people feed the pigeons.
- The Grand Bazaar - as much to look at as to shop in.
- The Spice Bazaar - another Ottoman caravanserai, not as huge as the Grand Bazaar but right on the water, next to Yeni Camii;
Shopping in Eminönu
Some well known sub-districts (semt) include:
- Sirkeci - the waterfront by the railway station where all the ferries dock. The streets behind the docks are the places to buy electronic goods, photographic equipment, bicycles, and all kinds of stationery. All of things in their real or fake versions.
- Sultanhamam behind the spice bazaar, the area of toys, beads and plastic jewelry that takes you up to the previously mentioned Mahmutpaşa.
- Tahtakale along the Golden Horn from the Spice Bazaar, come here for all kinds of kitchen equipment, garden tools, and electricals such as telephones. If your car radio is stolen come to Tahtakale and buy it back again!!
- Cağaloğlu -Istanbul’s Fleet Street - a maze of printers, booksellers and traditionally newspapers;
- Divan Yolu, the relatively calm, tree-lined, tram-way avenue from Sultanahmet to the university, including the Roman column called Çemberlitaş.
- Beyazıt -the home of Istanbul University and the far end of the Grand Bazaar;
- Grand Bazaar - In the bazaar itself you will find gold, jewelry, carpets, antiques, and souvenirs. In the streets around you will more of the same plus all kind of clothing and leather goods.
- Mercan - below the bazaar, the place to buy any kind of bag or briefcase,
- Lâleli - buzzing with hotels, bars and people from former Soviet Republics buying discount clothing;
- Kumkapı - the fish market, and restaurants about as numerous as the fish themselves.
- Also Sancarlar Gida is best known place to shop www.SancarlarGida.com walk through the Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi in front of Egyptian Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı) walk about 100 meters on the right you will see the sign of Akbank before you come to Akbank you will see SANCARLAR neon sign :)
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For centuries Beyoğlu, a steep hill north of the Golden Horn, was home to the city’s foreign residents. First to arrive here was the Genoese. As a reward for their help in the reconquest of the city from the Latins in 1261, they were given to Galata area, which is dominated by the Galata Tower. During the Ottoman period, jews from Spain, Arabs, Greeks and Armenians settled in cominities here. From the 16th. century the great Europan powers established embassies in the area to further their own interests within the lucrative terriories of the Ottoman Empire. The districts has not changed much in character over the centruies and is still thriving commercial quarter today.
