Sensortopia

Karaköy: Three Odd Mosques of the Port

1 h 30 min Neighbourhood flat Any window between prayers

A short walk through the old port quarter, where no mosque looks like a mosque. Yeraltı ('the underground') hides in the cellar of a Byzantine fortress tower: a low hall of six rows of columns, above the maqams of two warriors of the caliphate — a site revealed, by tradition, to a dervish in a dream. Arap Camii is a former fourteenth-century Dominican church, with Gothic windows and a square bell tower instead of a minaret. And finally Sokollu Azapkapı — late Sinan, an octagon on a raised platform right by the bridge. An hour and a half, all of it flat.

Karaköy: Three Odd Mosques of the Port
Photo: User:Ggia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Getting there

T1 tram, Karaköy stop

Karaköy is a hub for T1, the M2 metro (Şişhane) and the ferries; the walk pairs naturally with the descent from Beyoğlu.

  1. 1

    Yeraltı Mosque (Underground Mosque)

    Beyoğlu / Karaköy · 1753 · ~15 min visit

    An underground mosque in the cellar of the Byzantine Galata tower that anchored the chain sealing the Golden Horn. A forest of squat piers shelters the tombs of early Arab-siege warriors.

  2. walk, 11 min — inland into old Galata

    2

    Arap Mosque

    Beyoğlu / Karaköy · 1323–1337 · ~20 min visit

    Istanbul’s only former Gothic church turned mosque: a 14th-century Dominican church of Genoese Galata whose square bell tower serves as the minaret. Given to Muslim refugees from Spain after 1492.

  3. walk, 3 min — to the Galata Bridge

    3

    Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque, Azapkapı

    Beyoğlu / Azapkapı · 1577–1578 · ~20 min visit

    Prayer hall raised on a vaulted basement of shops on land reclaimed from the Golden Horn — the canonical working-out of Sinan's octagonal baldachin.

Finish

Galata Bridge / T1 Karaköy

Before you go — prayer times, dress, etiquette

  • Mosques close to tourists during the five daily prayers (~30 minutes each). On Fridays the large mosques admit no visitors until about 14:30, so morning routes do not work that day. The best windows are roughly 9:00–12:00 and 13:45–16:30. Check the current times on site.
  • Dress code: covered shoulders and knees, a headscarf for women; shoes come off at the entrance. Large mosques lend wraps for free.
  • Mosque etiquette: enter quietly, never walk in front of someone praying, keep your phone on silent. Photos without flash or tripod, and never photograph people praying. Shoes come off at the entrance — socks are better than bare feet.