Arasta Bazaar

The Arasta is a row of about seventy shops on a single lane running behind the Blue Mosque, built in the seventeenth century as part of the mosque's endowment - the rents supported its upkeep, which is how most Ottoman monuments were funded. It sells carpets and kilims, İznik-style ceramics, jewellery, textiles and the usual souvenirs, and the difference from the Grand Bazaar is atmosphere rather than stock: it is one straight street, quiet, with no touts pulling at sleeves and shopkeepers who generally let you look. Prices start higher and there is less room to bargain. At the lower end of the street is the entrance to the Great Palace Mosaic Museum, built over a floor of the Byzantine imperial palace uncovered here in the 1930s - hunting scenes, animals and rural life in coloured stone, worth the ticket and often missed by people who came only to shop.

What you actually see

• The single lane - seventy shops in one Ottoman row.
• The carpet and tile shops - kilims and İznik-style ceramics.
• The Mosaic Museum - the Byzantine palace floor at the end.
• The Blue Mosque wall - the monument the street was built to fund.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Mornings are quietest. Most shops close on Sundays or open late.

Honest expectations

Prices are higher than the Grand Bazaar and haggling room is narrower. It is short - an hour covers it. Genuine handmade carpets and machine-made copies sit side by side; ask, and take your time.

Nearby

The Blue Mosque is over the wall; the Hippodrome, Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern are minutes away.