DAILY TOURS: Ottoman Wonders

Begin the tour visiting Topkapi Palace, the Great Palace of the Ottoman Sultans and the most extensive and fascinating monument of Ottoman civil architecture in existence. In addition to its architectural and historical interest, it contains  a superb and unrivaled collections of porcelains, armor, fabrics, jewels, illuminated manuscripts, calligraphy and many objects of art, formerly belonging to the Sultans. The palace was built between 1459 and 1465 as the seat of government of the newly installed Ottoman regime. Situated on a promontory above the confluence of the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, it stands aloof from the rest of the city, and still today offers a respite from the heaving streets below. The palace is not a single building but a series of graceful interconnecting courtyards.

The major highlight of the museum is the Imperial Treasury that hosts the richest collection of its kind in the world. All the pieces exhibited in the four rooms are authentic originals. The famous Topkapi Dagger (the symbol of the museum) embellished with three large emeralds is also on display here as as well the 86-carat Spoon Maker's (or Pigot) Diamond, one of the most famous diamonds in the world. 
Don't miss the beautifully tiled Pavilion of the Sacred Relics, home to some of Christian Islam's holiest relics. These include (Christian) the Moses’ rod, a piece of St. John the Baptist's skull and a section of his forearm, enclosed within a solid gold model, the King David’s sword, Joseph’s turban, the grain gage of Abraham; (Muslim) one of the Prophet's teeth, fragments of his beard and, most precious of all, his Holy Mantle, which is kept in a gold coffer placed on a silver throne behind glass walls.

Later, see Little Hagia Sophia Mosque, formerly the Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus, is a former Eastern Orthodox Church dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, converted into a mosque during the Ottoman Empire. This Byzantine building with a central dome plan was erected in the sixth century by Justinian, likely was a model for Hagia Sophia (St. Sophia), and is one of the most important early Byzantine buildings in Istanbul. It was recognized at the time as an adornment to the entire city, and a modern historian of the East Roman Empire has written that the church, by the originality of its architecture and the sumptuousness of its carved decoration, ranks in Constantinople second only to St. Sophia itself. Drop-off at the hotel.