Grand Bazaar in Istanbul

Apparently, my hotel was somewhere near the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. I have been to these types of bazaars and I think that they are delightful places. Essentially, a bazaar is just a market. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is considered to be one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. It was first constructed in the year 1455 to serve as a covered market for textiles. Eventually, this became a massive collection of more than four thousand shops. It is not all textiles here anymore but as you can see, there are other stuff on sale here.

As I was randomly walking around this area in Istanbul, I found the entrance to the actual Grand Bazaar. All along I was walking outside it. The Grand Bazaar area is covered and air-conditioned so it is a pleasant place to be in. There are numerous passageways here and there is always something different on sale here. Although, I don’t plan on buying anything here yet, I was just having fun just walking around here and seeing what is on sale. I realize that this place is not unlike a shopping mall. You could even say that the Grand Bazaar is the first shopping mall. I stumbled into what appears to be the antique section of the bazaar. The stuff on sale here were interesting, plates, instruments, telescopes and even maps. I could imagine that I could stumble into something very important but I don’t know enough about these to make a wise purchase.

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