The Egyptian Bazaar opened in 1664 as part of the New Mosque complex, funded by customs duties on goods arriving from Cairo — which is where the name comes from, not from what is sold inside.
The L-shaped hall holds about eighty-five shops. Spices and dried fruit still dominate, along with Turkish delight, tea, nuts and the saffron and sumac that are hard to find at this quality elsewhere. Prices at the entrance are tourist prices; two-thirds of the way in they drop.
Open daily, roughly 08:00 to 19:30. The streets immediately around it — Tahtakale and the pier road — are where locals actually shop.
From The Soul Hotel it is a walk down to Karaköy and across the Galata Bridge, twenty-five minutes on foot, or two tram stops.
Category:
Shopping