An aerial view of the Grand Bazaar (Kapalı Çarşı) in Istanbul. As you can see, the Grand Bazaar is huge! It consists of over 4.000 shops spread out in a maze of 56 interconnecting vaulted passages totaling an area of 54.653 square meters. So yes, the Grand Bazaar consists of the whole picture, not just the part in the middle!

Every street in the Grand Bazaar (Kapalı Çarşı) of Istanbul is dedicated to a certain profession. Shops displaying similar goods are therefore grouped together in certain sections of the Grand Bazaar. This results in pretty stiff competition, but is of course convenient for the shoppers. This is a picture I took of the leather street.

The Grand Bazaar (Kapalı Çarşı) has no less than 21 different gates or entrances. This is the Nuruosmaniye Kapı or gate, one of the five most used entrances, which is also the closest gate when coming from Sultanahmet.