The Spice Bazaar and Eminonu Streets

The Misir Carsisi, the Egyptian Bazaar, was completed in 1664 as part of the mosque complex beside it, built so its rents would pay for the mosque's upkeep, and it has sold food ever since. Inside the vaulted L of the hall are cones of spice, saffron, dried apricots and figs, pistachio lokum cut to order, tea, dried aubergine skins for stuffing and pastirma sliced thin. The better shopping is outside. Hasircilar Caddesi and the lanes running up towards the bazaar quarter are where coffee is ground while you wait, cheesemongers keep whole wheels of kasar and tulum, and pickle shops sell brine by the glass.

What you actually see

• The hall of 1664 - vaulted and L-shaped, built to fund the mosque next door.
• Hasircilar Caddesi - the outside street where the city actually buys its coffee and cheese.
• Lokum cut to order - pistachio, rose and plain, sold by weight rather than in gift boxes.
• Pickle shops - tursu by the jar and salgam by the glass in the side lanes.

When to go

Weekday mornings are the calm window; by midday the hall is one moving queue and Saturdays are worse. It closes in the early evening and on some religious holidays. The run-up to Ramadan and to the sugar feast is the market at full volume, worth seeing if you accept that you will not be shopping efficiently.

Honest expectations

Inside the hall you pay a tourist premium and get a persistent sales patter, and the saffron on open display is often safflower. Taste before you buy, and compare with the outside streets, which are usually cheaper and better stocked. The crush around the doors at midday is unpleasant with a bag or a pushchair, and there is nowhere to sit.

Nearby

The Galata Bridge, the ferry piers at Eminonu and the Grand Bazaar up the hill.