Worth seeing

At the tip of the peninsula, surrounded by the oldest city wall, lies Eminönü, a district of Fatih that used to be an autonomous part of Istanbul and merged into one district with Fatih in 2008. Here you’ll find the city’s historic centre with remnants of the Byzantine Palace, the antique Cisterna Basilica, the Hippodrome, the museums of the former cathedral Hagia Sophia, the former church Hagia Irene, the erstwhile Sultans’ Palace Topkapı Sarayı, and many famous mosques (Sultan-Ahmed Mosque, Süleymaniye Mosque, Rüstem-Paşa Mosque, and the city’s oldest mosque, the Beyazıt Mosque). The second largest Christian church of Byzantium, the Church of the Holy Apostles with the grave of Constantine the Great, once stood where you can now visit the Fatih Mosque. Not far from the Philadelphion, you’ll find the Column of Marcian (Kıztaşı).

Fatih is also home to Orthodox churches that were converted to mosques during the Ottoman centuries, such as the Zeyrek Mosque and the Pammakaristos Church. The church Hagios Georgios is located on the grounds of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Among the most significant museums of the district are the Archaeological Museum near Topkapı Palace, the Museum for Turkish and Islamic Art near the Hippodrome and the Hagia Sophia.