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Put the old maps next to today: how much have the streets, gates and walls changed over the centuries?

Grand Bazaar

This 1895 plan shows the bazaar's gates, its two bedestens and which trade occupied which street at the time. The street pattern is almost identical today.

Plan of the central bazaars (1895) 1895
Historic map

Plan of the central bazaars

The margin lists the gates (letter K is the Jewellers' Gate), the centre shows the Cevahir and Sandal bedestens, and the table on the right names the trades that held each street: jewellers, carpet dealers, tailors, booksellers.

Spry, 1895 · Source

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Today

Grand Bazaar

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Historic Peninsula

From the oldest known map of the city to a detailed 19th-century street plan: how the walls, harbours and quarters changed over the centuries.

The oldest known map of the city (1422) 1422
Historic map

The oldest known map of the city

Drawn by the Florentine priest Cristoforo Buondelmonti, it shows Constantinople 31 years before the conquest: the walls, Hagia Sophia, the Hippodrome and the chain closing the Golden Horn.

Cristoforo Buondelmonti, 1422 · BnF · Source

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Detailed city plan (1890) 1890
Historic map

Detailed city plan

Drawn at 1:30,000 for Hachette's travel guide, it marks the land-wall gates, Yedikule, Fener, Balat and the bazaar quarter one by one.

L. Thuillier, Guides Joanne / Hachette, 1890 · BnF · Source

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Historic Peninsula

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