Entrance gate to Grand Bazaar, Istanbul

The gates are closed today, but lively business abounds outside.

When we went inside the bazaar yesterday, our guide instructed us to memorize the way back to our entry gate. (Some relevant statistics: 61 covered streets, over 3,000 shops, between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.)

Shopping here is very different from that in Western culture. If you want to look at jewellery, you need to find the sector of the bazaar dedicated to jewellers' shops. Gold and silver items are sold by their weight, irrespective of the craftsmanship devoted to them. Incidentally, there is also a jewellery shop - "orijinal bijuteri"- to the right of this photo.

(And if for instance you want to buy a bicycle in Istanbul, there is a single location in the town, underneath a flyover (!), devoted exclusively to bicycle shops.)



This blip was added in November 2014.