The Grand Bazaar is a network of covered streets, courtyards, and trading spaces that grew around a fifteenth-century bedesten. Its maze-like plan reflects centuries of expansion, turning commerce into one of Istanbul’s defining urban experiences.
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The bazaar does not reveal itself as one single hall. Its lanes and covered passages developed around the bedestens, the secure commercial cores that anchored trade. Construction began under Mehmed the Conqueror in 1461, and the market expanded substantially in the centuries that followed.
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UpgradeQuick facts
- Construction began in 1461 under Mehmed the Conqueror.
- The bazaar expanded greatly during Süleyman the Magnificent’s reign.
- Its core developed around bedestens and associated commercial streets.
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