This is not simply a building, nor a market nor even a district that we find facing us now, but a city, a separate urban area with its own alleys and, throughfares and streets, a labyrinth of shops and passages in complicated interdependence, always fascinating to explore.

Admittedly it is a city without outstanding monuments, but this Grand Bazaar, the largest oriental bazaar in the world, would be sufficient object in itself for a visit to our Metropolis. It is the most colourful of places, its windows teaming with gold and diamonds; warm in the winter, fresh the hot months, combed with dim and little-known alleyways abutting almost unnoticed on to avenues crowded with passers-by.

It was constructed in 1461 under Mehmet The Conqueror for the party known as 'Bedestan'. Suleyman the Magnificent, Mehmet IV and Mustafa II successively either extended its area or enlarged it (1651-1701), as a result of earthquakes or fires or other events necessitating repairs. In the great earthquake of 1896 the Grand Bazaar was severly damaged and extensive restorations were necessary; in 1954 it was partly destroyed by fire and had once more to be put in order. These successive restorations, and the fluctuations in social and economic life have been reflected in the Grand Bazaar. The walls of the arcades, the cupolas, which gave each shop numerous satellites, have keen changed or pulled down, or modernised with glass window fronts illuminated with neon lighting, breaking the antique atmosphere of this immense covered market... But we are powerless in the face of progress, and in spite of this new look the Grand Bazaar continues to offer to its customers many fine and rare curiosities.

It is not our intention to attempt to guide you in detail through the maze of streets and alleys of the Grand Bazaar, the task would be too difficult. But for guidance let us point out that if you enter by the Nur-u-Osmaniye gate the avenue before you leads directly to Beyazit Square. If we pass by the Nur-u-Osmaniye we must take the first street on the right to reach the jewelers section of the Bazaar. Here the public is offered articles of jewelry in gold, silver platinum, cut diamond, and other gems and precious stones. It is a centre of the diamond trade.

In one place you will see a shop in the form of a small kiosk, formerly the counter of a dairy; a little spiral staircase leads you to the upper floor of this minute building and we recommend you to take a look from here at the market spreading immediately below you-it is a limited view, but not without interest...To the left of this little kiosk there is a door with glass wings on either side; descending the two steps you arrive at the antiquities section of Bedestan; on sale here are objects in copper and bronze, every sort of souvenir to tempt the visitor; it is a field of exploration, criss-crossed like a chequer-board, in which the lanes meet end intersect endlessly. Stoves, braziers, weapons, armour, ikons, carpets, embroideries, rings, ancient coins, porcelain vases, objects fashioned in silver, all kinds of treasures are to be found here. Here and there above us hang lamps and old lanterns in many colours, whose pale rose and turquoise are reflected from behind their globes, old-fashioned now, out so familiar for the light they used to shed..

All the same, here are some points regarding the Grand Bazaar which might be agreable for you to know: In 1880, according to an inventory taken at the time the area of the Grand Bazaar included 2 Bedesten, 4399 shops, 2195 living rooms, 1 Hamam, 1 mosque, 12 strongrooms for keeping objects of value, 10 houses of prayer, 2 fountains, 1 fountain reservoir, 16 drinking-water posts, 8 wells for the use of fire-pumps, 24 hans, 1 school.

The trades carried on under this huge vaulted city were numerous and varied-you can imagine how many there must have been; some have disappeared, others still survive, dispersed according to the nature of their work in streets bearing the trade-names. The Kavoukjis (workers in headdress), merchants of fezzes and turbans, tailors, handkerchief vendors, furriers, tanners, traders in skins, knife sellers, seamsters, makers of sashes and belts and bags, drapers, retailers of matching materials, specialists in hand painting on cloth, mattness-makers, shoe-makers, polishers, makers of looking-glasses, gilders, paper-makers, makers of jewel-boxes and fashioners of pearls, embroiderers, traders of rosaries, money-changers, jewelers, weavers of rush mats, armchair-makers and tent-makers, engravers, sculptors, etc. etc.