Grand Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar stretches across sixty-one covered streets with four thousand shops, defined by a labyrinth of domed stone ceilings and arched gateways. Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror commissioned this complex shortly after taking Constantinople in fourteen fifty-three, intending to secure the empire’s economic core. One night in sixteen fifty-four, a massive fire broke out, followed by a series of earthquakes that fractured the masonry. Merchants had to rebuild the structure from the rubble, eventually enclosing the sprawling market under its signature lead-covered domes.