Spice Bazaar
Built In The 1660s As The Revenue Generating Market Of The Yeni Cami Complex, Funded By Egyptian Customs Income Hence Its Turkish Name, The Egyptian Bazaar · Istanbul, Istanbul
The Spice Bazaar was built in the 1660s as the endowment market of the New Mosque beside it, paid for out of Egyptian customs revenue, which is why Turks call it the Egyptian Bazaar rather than anything to do with spices. It is an L of vaulted halls with about eighty-five shops in it, and it is a great deal smaller and more manageable than the Grand Bazaar - an hour rather than an afternoon. What it sells has drifted over the years from spices and medicines towards Turkish delight, tea and souvenirs, and the honest advice is that the real market is outside: Hasircilar Caddesi running west is where the city buys its coffee, cheese, dried fruit and kitchen equipment, and the lanes behind hold the plant market, the fishing tackle shops and Rustem Pasha Mosque up a staircase above the shopfronts. It is open on Sundays. The Grand Bazaar is not, which is the single most useful thing to know about either of them.
Rustem Pasa Mahallesi, Erzak Ambari Sokak, Eminonu, Fatih, Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkiye
Open daily through the day, INCLUDING SUNDAYS, which is the practical difference from the Grand Bazaar. Shops start closing in the early evening. The surrounding street markets - Hasircilar Caddesi, the plant and pet market, the fishing-tackle shops - keep their own hours and are busiest in the morning. Religious holidays change everything.