Istanbul’s iconic Grand Bazaar to get facelift

ISTANBUL: Over 500 years old, surviving fire and earthquakes, it welcomes up to 400,000 people a day and takes pride in being the world’s most visited destination — more popular than the Eiffel Tower.

So it’s hardly surprising that Istanbul’s venerable Grand Bazaar, built in the mid-15th century, has suffered some wear and tear over the years.
The labyrinthine bazaar is now about to undergo a much needed renovation that will last a decade and cost tens of millions of dollars.
But the revamp is not without controversy, especially among traditionalists who fear the spirit of the historic market will be lost.
“It’s the most visited destination in the world, so it’s very important for us,” said Mustafa Demir, the mayor of the Fatih district of Istanbul where the bazaar is located. “It’s a very long project which is going to need a decade,” he said. The cost is estimated at $33.5 million which will be largely financed by the Turkish authorities.
The Grand Bazaar ranked as the top destination anywhere in the world with over 90 million visitors in 2014, according to a Travel + Leisure listing.
Construction of the bazaar began around 1455 under the reign of Sultan Mehmet II, the “Conquerer” who had finally seized the city then known as Constantinople from the Byzantines in 1453. With the city in need of a trade center for goods coming in from all over the nascent Ottoman Empire, the Grand Bazaar expanded rapidly.
By the 17th century it had taken on its current form, a covered market (giving the bazaar its Turkish name Kapalicarsi), which now has thousands of shops and dozens of streets.
It has become one of Istanbul’s most iconic sites, outstripping even the Hagia Sophia in terms of visitor numbers, and featured in a memorable sequence in the 2011 James Bond film “Skyfall.”
Visitors flock there to pick up souvenir trinkets or a carpet. Bargaining with the multilingual, friendly but famously hard-nosed shop-holders is all part of the experience. Locals also come in droves to pick more prosaic goods like clothes, furniture or shoes, or possibly jewelry for a special occasion.