As Constantine the Great declared the city as the new capital of the Roman Empire and named it Constantinople one of the first things that Constantine rebuilt was the Hippodrome. He enlarged the hippodrome and connected it to the Great Palace of Constantinople. Hippodrome was a public arena mainly for chariot races. It was also home to official ceremonies, celebrations, protests and even executions.

Hippodrome was the centre of the Constantinopolitans’ everyday life. Huge amounts were bet on chariot races and there were four teams took part in these races, each one financially sponsored and supported by a different political party in the Roman Senate: The Blues, the Greens , the Reds and the Whites. Good charioteers were as treated as public heroes and their statues were erected in the Hippodrome.

It is estimated that the Hippodrome of Constantine was about 450 m long and 130 m wide in U shape and the capacity was approximately 100,000. It was decorated with monuments that were brought ancient cities across the empire such as Serpent Column from Delphi and Obelisk of Thutmosis III from Egypt and Walled Obelisk of Romans.

Ibrahim Pasha Palace is one of the most important buildings of Ottoman civil architecture over the remains of the Roman Hippodrome. In 1520, it was gifted by Suleyman the Magnificent to Ibrahim Pasha, his vizier and wife of his sister Princess Hatice. Today, the palace is used as a museum of Turkish and Islamic artifacts and has antique handmade carpets, manuscripts, wood, stone, glass-mine-ceramic artifacts, holy relics and ethnography sections.

The museum is known for having one of the best carpet collections in the world. The masterpieces among the carpets are Seljuk examples from the 13th century.

In addition to the carpet collections, the museum also stands out with its manuscripts, which are rare works of art. Glassware, stone and terracotta artifacts, metal and ceramic objects are also on display. The ethnography collection is also amazing to reflect the daily life of the Ottoman society in 18 th and 19 th centuries.

In 1984, the museum received the Special Jury Prize of the Council of Europe Museum of the Year Competition and in 1985 the Council of Europe-UNESCO award for promoting cultural heritage to children.

The Grand Bazaar was the largest bazaar in Constantinople, the trade center of the old world. Today ,with its more than 4,000 shops the bazaar is attracting one million visitors in a week. In 2014, it was listed as the world's most-visited tourist attractions with 91 million annual visitors.

Thousands of visitors come every day to explore and do shopping in the labyrinth back streets of the bazaar where you can buy jewellery, carpets, leather, silk , etc.