GRAND BAZAAR

BEYAZIT, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

More than 550 years old, the Grand Bazaar remains a thriving complex, employing 26,000 people.

GRAND BAZAAR

BEYAZIT, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

The Grand Bazaar is located inside the walled city of Istanbul, in the district of Fatih. 

It stretches roughly from west to east between the mosques of Beyazit and Nuruosmaniye. 

GRAND BAZAAR

BEYAZIT, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

The Grand Bazaar is often regarded as one of the first shopping malls in the world. It has barber shops, restaurants and post office and other trappings of a full city.

GRAND BAZAAR

BEYAZIT, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

The Grand Bazaar is considered No.1 among world's most-visited tourist attractions with 91,250,000 annual visitors.

GRAND BAZAAR

BEYAZIT, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

The Grand Bazaar has 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.

GRAND BAZAAR

BEYAZIT, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

The Grand Bazaar (Turkish: Kapalıçarşı, meaning ‘Covered Market’) in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world.

CELEBRATING MORE THAN 110,000 READERS

THANKS FOR READING AND SHARING MY CONTENT

During the weekend, this blog passed 110,000 total readers.

This blog grew slowly, launching more than six yeas ago.

It has featured more than 1,300 posts.

A few dozen have been guest posts from my wife, Heidi Johnson-Wright, from her award-winning EarthBound TomBoy blog.

In the past year, they have been more political -- because the bigotry and anger in America has made it impossible to not use the written word to come to the defense of women, people with disabilities, Muslims, Hispanics, the LGBT community and others singled out by the frighteningly large amount of America that still views diversity through KKK tinted glasses.

We have shared 250,000 words and more than 2,500 images -- almost all my originals shot with my beloved Nikon -- in this blog.

Stay tuned, we have more great things to share through the years.

By the way, the image is NOT one of our cats.

It's a Kedi that greeted me every morning on the bench at the Beyazit Tram station near the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

FOUNTAIN OF AHMED III

OTTOMAN ARCHITECTURE AND CRAFTSMANSHIP

In Sultanahmet Square, Old Town, Istanbul, Turkey.

By the way, entire Istanbul and Turkey trip was safest I've felt in years.

Go visit, the people are warm and everything is safe as hometown USA.

GRAND BAZAAR, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Kapalı Çarşı, or Covered Market

Yes, sadly, at least half the nearly 4,000 stalls are aimed at tourists.

But the Grand Bazaar is a must see.

Go for the history.

Stop to have tea -- Turkish or apple.

Bargain with a salesperson -- the gold and silver places generally charge by weight, with a very small mark up for the craftsmanship.

Check out turkeytravelplanner.com for more insights.