Instanbul's Grand Bazaar

Our project for Tuesday was to see more of Sultanahmet, which we did, and then do the Grand Bazaar, the world's oldest and still largest shopping mall. 4,000 shops; and those are just the ones under the roof.

Main entrance, Gate #1 (of 18, I think); it is an incredible 
maze inside

But there is occasional and helpful (if you read Turkish) 
signage

This is pretty much what it looks like, mile after mile...

On the main drag at least there are occasional interpretive

signs in English

We occasionally strayed onto the streets surrounding the Bazaar, which are pretty 
much the same, except there are cars and trucks and no roof; here we are in the 
rivet district

There are hundreds of rivet stores, here and in ot her parts 
of Istanbul; apparently they go through a lot of rivets in 
Istanbul

A riveting pair of jeans

Now we are in the police supply district, dozens of such stores



Here we are in the textile manufacturer supply district, where you can buy, in 
bulk, whatever label and washing instructions you want to put on the garments 
you manufacture

There are many small, specialized shops in the Bazaar; here 
in an antiques area, a shop devoted just to old gramaphones 
and parts; sales, however, were not brisk

Of course there is enough gold for sale to rival Fort Knox; and silver, too; we 
ventured into the extant silver-smithing han and watched some of the work; 
in the good old days, manufacture and finishing were done in a han, adjoining 
the relevant retail shops



And there is plenty of "regional" stuff for sale too, although the tourist trinket 
shoppes have by no means taken over; one sees plenty of tourists, but the 
majority of people there clearly were Turks

My sharp business eye tells me that the guys [sic] really raking it in at the Bazaar 
are the ones selling and delivering Turkish tea to the merchants themselves