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WonderHistory fact

Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, one of the world's oldest and largest covered markets, has been trading since the 15th century. Today its 61 covered streets hold thousands of shops.

Historical fact

History

The story behind the card

Work on its core, the domed Cevahir Bedesten for valuable goods, began in the winter of 1455–56, soon after Mehmed II took Constantinople, and was finished in 1460–61; its rents went to the religious foundation that maintained the Hagia Sophia mosque. Around it the market grew into a roofed maze of streets, inns and workshops. It has been damaged by many fires, the last in 1943 and 1954, and badly shaken by the 1894 earthquake. Until the repairs that followed, merchants sat on wooden benches in front of their shelves rather than in shops. Today it still sells jewellery, carpets, leather and ceramics.

Türkçe oku
İstanbul'daki Kapalıçarşı, dünyanın en eski ve en büyük kapalı çarşılarından biridir; 15. yüzyıldan beri burada alışveriş yapılır. Bugün üstü örtülü 61 sokağında binlerce dükkân vardır.

Çarşının çekirdeği, değerli malların alınıp satıldığı kubbeli Cevahir Bedesteni'dir. İnşaatı, Fatih Sultan Mehmed'in İstanbul'u almasından kısa süre sonra, 1455–56 kışında başladı ve 1460–61'de bitti; kira gelirleri Ayasofya Camii'nin vakfına bağlandı. Çarşı zamanla bedestenin çevresinde sokaklardan, hanlardan ve atölyelerden oluşan, üstü örtülü bir labirente dönüştü. Pek çok yangın geçirdi, sonuncuları 1943'te ve 1954'teydi; 1894 depremi de ağır hasar verdi. O depremden sonraki onarıma kadar esnaf bugünkü gibi dükkânlarda değil, raflarının önündeki ahşap sedirlerde otururdu. Bugün de mücevherden halıya, deriden seramiğe canlı bir çarşıdır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Grand Bazaar, Istanbul
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