Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The fifth tomb is Aya Sofya's original Baptistry, converted to a mausoleum for sultans
İbrahim I and Mustafa I during the 17th century.
MUSEUM PASS İSTANBUL
Most visitors spend at least three days in İstanbul and cram as many museum visits as possible into
most welcome. Valid for 72 hours from your first museum entrance, it costs 72 and allows entrance
to Topkapı Palace and Harem, Aya Sofya, the Kariye Museum (Chora Church), the İstanbul Archae-
ology Museums, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts and the Great Palace Mosaics Museum.
Purchased individually, admission fees to these sights will cost 108, so the pass represents a saving
of 36. Its biggest benefit is that it allows you to bypass ticket queues and make your way straight
into the museums - something that is particularly useful when visiting ever-crowded Aya Sofya.
As well as providing entry to these government-operated museums, the pass gives a 20% discount
erated by the university of the same name.
The pass can be purchased from some hotels and also from the ticket offices at Aya Sofya, the
Kariye Museum, Topkapı Palace and the İstanbul Archaeology Museums.
GREAT PALACE MOSAIC MUSEUM
OFFLINE MAP
| MUSEUM
(Torun Sokak; admission 8; 9am-6.30pm Tue-Sun Apr-Oct, to 4.30pm Nov-Mar; Sultanahmet)
When archaeologists from the University of Ankara and the University of St Andrews
(Scotland) excavated around the Arasta Bazaar at the rear of the Blue Mosque in the
mid-1950s, they uncovered a stunning mosaic pavement featuring hunting and mytholo-
gical scenes. Dating from early Byzantine times, it was restored from 1983 to 1997 and is
now preserved in this museum.
Thought to have been added by Justinian to the Great Palace of Byzantium, the pave-
ment is estimated to have measured from 3500 to 4000 sq m in its original form. The 250
sq m that is preserved here is the largest discovered remnant - the rest has been destroyed
or remains buried underneath the Blue Mosque and surrounding shops and hotels.
