Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamamı is located inside a mosque complex, just a few steps from the Tophane tram stop in Beyoglu. Abandoned for years, it was recently renovated and returned to its original glory. It displays classic hammam architecture with a striking lines dominated by a magnificent dome crowning the large göbektaşı below..
There of dozens of Byzantine era cisterns located throughout Istanbul’s ancient city’s foundations but the largest and most notable is the Basilica Cistern which was closed at the onset of the pandemic and remains closed for extensive renovations until an undesignated future date. The most notable of the other cisterns is the Cistern of Theodosius which remains open to the public as a museum.
Six years after the conquest of Constantinople, Sultan Ahmed II constructed a palace as his new personal residence which remained the residence of the Ottoman empire’s sultans and the center of administrative function of the empire for four centuries until the construction and occupation of the more modern and accommodating Dolmabahçe Palace by Sultan Abdulmejid I in 1856 (following 13 years of construction on the palace).