Topkapı Palace — The Heart of the Ottoman Empire

The Topkapı Sarayı was the residence of the Ottoman sultans and the administrative center of an empire that stretched from Hungary to Yemen for almost 400 years (1465–1856). The palace is not a single building but a city within a city: four courtyards, dozens of pavilions, gardens, kitchens, a school, a treasury, and the infamous harem.

The Four Courtyards

• 1st Courtyard (Alay Meydanı): Freely accessible — the Hagia Irene (Byzantine church) stands here. No entrance fee required.
• 2nd Courtyard: The palace administration: Divan (council of state), palace kitchens (now a museum for Chinese porcelain — the second largest collection in the world after Beijing) and the entrance to the Harem.
• 3rd Courtyard: The private area of the Sultan: Audience Hall, Ahmed III's Library, and the Treasury — featuring the Topkapı Dagger (set with three huge emeralds) and the Spoonmaker's Diamond (86 carats, surrounded by 49 diamonds).
• 4th Courtyard: The gardens and pavilions with the best view of Istanbul: over the Golden Horn, the Bosporus, and the Asian side. The Iftariye Pavilion at sunset is magical.

The Harem

The Harem is a palace within a palace: over 300 rooms where the wives, children, and mothers of the sultans lived — along with up to 300 eunuchs. The rooms of the Valide Sultan (Sultan's mother) are the most splendid: İznik tiles, gilded ceilings, calligraphic inscriptions. The Harem was not a place of sensuality, as the Western cliché suggests, but a center of power — the Sultan's mother was often the most powerful person in the empire.