İstanbul: Layers of history, culture, architecture

AIA Continental Europe Conference and Chapter Meeting

8-12 April 2010

Program, 30 Mar 2010, subject to change. Full registration with optional Monday yields 23.5 CEUs, 20.5 of HSW and 5.5 of SD. Even with the exchange rate and late registration, one would still be hard pressed to beat that CES value!

Lecture and Tour Abstracts

Session A

“Inventions”—Peter Cook

Lecture will focus on the process of creating utopias and realization of these utopias through the completed works of architect. Founder of the innovative and avant-garde Archigram group in 1960's, Peter Cook will discuss futurist works like plug-in city, walking cities, blow-out village, that offered visions of a future machine age.

Session B

Panel: “Layers Of Architecture Through History”
“Building ‘the Contemporary’ in the late-Ottoman- early-Republican Istanbul” —Irem Maro Kiris

In the early 20th century, as the Republican period starts, Istanbul with an active, long settlement history is a city that has already been architecturally characterized unlike the new capitol Ankara, where a modern city from the start was meant to be constructed. With the influence of new variables added on to the existent, Istanbul, at the turn of the 19th century to the 20th, exhibits a unique setting and development like no other Turkish city does, in terms of introduction of modern architecture. The influence of various sources, constraints and conflicts such as the imperial heritage, metropolitan growth, existing urban texture, cosmopolitan social structure, westernization, nationalism, and demands of the new forming ideology, urged further transformation of the city.

In the late 19th century, and almost throughout its whole history, Istanbul has housed a population composed of Turks, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Europeans, Levantines, Persians and Arabs, keeping the city culturally and economically related to the outer world, mostly to the European cities. Groups of different ethnicity, religion, nationality forming the population did not display regular correspondence with the social structure in means of distribution of wealth and social status however these groups commonly preferred to settle in certain districts of the city. The inhabitants, socio-cultural life and physical environment reserved a potential to continuously change. In this context, building the contemporary and/or modern architecture in Istanbul had to go through various routes; styles and stages. There are conscious, canonical trends as well as more spontaneous developments.

In order to depict a view of the architectural setting of Istanbul in the years 1890s-1940s, a common approach will be followed. The intention is to see this rather complicated setting and long course within defined, smaller scale frames of time and meaning and visualize through certain images/records. Compulsorily, selections and reductions are to be made. Classified periods, districts and trends as indicated below, with a focus on the leading figures, their approach and work will be explored via arguments from different sources.

Late-Ottoman Period: In the late 19th century, foreigners and minority groups of the community, held dominant roles in economical and cultural activities, including architecture. Architecture was mostly produced by local and foreign professionals and master builders. Pera region shaped in this period displayed features of Revivalist, Eclectic, Oriental, and Art Nouveau styles. Specific buildings of the years 1890-1910 by the architects D’Aronco, Vallaury, Jachmund are included in the lecture.

The First National Style: A nationalistic approach, ‘Ottoman Revivalism’ exposed itself in the work of especially two leading architects; Kemaleddin and Vedat Tek. Between 1910s-1930s the style created buildings combining traditional Turkish architectural features with those of western classicism particularly in facade compositions. Although criticized for the contrary, it caused modernizing influence on Turkish architecture.

‘New, Modern’ Architecture: In early 1930s, ‘Ottoman Revivalism’ was abandoned in favor of a western-oriented ‘new architecture’ in parallel to the newly established culture policies. A rational, functional architecture open to international modernism, had been supported. Foreign architects were officially invited to the country. Their performance in practice and training, together with the local architects’ work displayed a wide range. Work of Turkish modernists such as Arkan, Sayar, Denktas, Guney, and ‘cubic apartments’ are recognizable in this period.

The Second National Style: Beginning with 1934, Sedad Hakki Eldem had been the leader and former of an architecture (and architectural discourse), bearing vernacular and classical references. His research was mainly based on traditional Ottoman-Turkish residential architecture. His work unifying the national with the modern had been enormously influential and had numerous followers.

The architectural history of the late-Ottoman early-Republican Turkey, within a 50 year period, had displayed stylistic shifts. All trends experienced, practicing architects and their work had fulfilled significant roles. Although they did not exhibit much similarity, and the intentions or inspirations underlying differed, they became different faces of the encounter with the modern. The common aim was to search for and to build the contemporary architecture in harmony with the demands of the period.

“Promenades of Istanbul: Strolling through the Historic Peninsula”—Sema Soygenis

Cities owe their existence to the number of the inhabitants whose social and cultural energy as reflections on space, form the built environment. Cities grow in time, often revealing the process of growth and change. Lozano (1990) defines city as ‘civilization’ indicating the energy and tension existing in cities. Bacon (1974) defines city as ‘a people’s art, a shared experience’. As people experience spaces, buildings of a city, they get meaning out of what they perceive. Although it is highly debateable whether the built environment reflects the culture of the inhabitants or visa versa, the more we learn about a culture, the better we understand and get meaning out of the built world.

Cities with their cityscape have conveyed messages on the values, traditions of its inhabitants. Transformation in the built environment reveal changes taking place in the society. Religious buildings, palaces, government buildings as the dominant elements of skyline were replaced by skyscrapers and we start to experience cultural buildings becoming dominating elements of the skyline today. Some cities with their built environment reflect the time, the process of their development more strongly than others. Strolling through the city is like lesson on architectural history.

Istanbul especially the historic peninsula can be considered as an example for a city of ‘juxtaposition of cultures’ with its Roman, Byzantion, Ottoman and Turkish heritage. The layers of culture, represented by architecture, built over each other over time can literally be experienced in some examples. Historical knowledge gives clues that the earliest layers of built work is 3-5 meters below the existing layer of the city today (Kuban,2004). While these early layers are the concern of archeologists, the architecture of the city with its monuments and urban fabric is open to perception of people and provides opportunities and clues for architects.

Referring to Kevin Lynch’s The Image of the city and Gordon Cullen’s Townscape, we constructed visual routes for historic peninsula called ‘Promenades’ to highlight the multi-cultural characteristics of the city and reflecting the rich spatial qualities of the urban space.

The promenades are constructed as;

Each promenade provides vibrant expressions of the interior and exterior space, with continuity and depth of space giving clues about the culture of its inhabitants in history.

The pedestrian while moving in the city receives images about the city in history in a new context/juxtaposition of spaces both in building and urban scale. The city does create ‘encompassing experience to engender involvement’ (Bacon,1974) taking the viewer to the depths of space and time.

The urban fabric of historic peninsula acts as an open museum for experiencing and understanding the city in process where old is replaced by the new, functions are reconstructed with changing traditions, population or needs, still keeping the auro of the past. The urban spaces of movement and repose provides the viewer with the problems and energy of the 21st century in the context of historic layers.

Contemporary Istanbul has a lot to learn from the historic one in terms of the structure of the city, the construction of space, spatial experience, architecture and the city as an extention of culture/s.

“Scanning Istanbul: Strata, superpositions, assemblages and unconscious transmutations”—Murat Germen

Istanbul is a very dynamic metropolis offering idiosyncratic relationships among its different neighborhoods with different environmental characteristics. Even though the city is divided into specific sectors inhabited by different people from different social groups, there is a surprisingly high level of interaction among these sectors / people. The streets of these different “zones” are always in use by local people during the day, unlike many metropolises in the world where streets are mostly occupied by tourists, especially during the week days when locals are at work. The range of the population on the streets is very wide and this fact makes Istanbul a very vibrant city where life can spontaneously get exciting due to unforeseeable nature of daily life.

The symbiosis between the city center and the periphery makes various people from various backgrounds come together in a rather unexpected way and this adds to the unpredictability of life in general in Istanbul, which in turn appends dimensions of surprise and vibrance. The relatively mechanic, planned, organized and sometimes visionary character of the West becomes assembled, dissolved with the Eastern mystical approach that fosters “suchness,” in other words, existence per se. The enigmatic outcome offers mystifying benefits like freedom from preconceptions, momentary skepticism about planned course of action, avoiding emotionless thinking / prejudices, reaching a more natural / authentic experience, discovering unusual and unique aesthetical domains, etc.

This possibility of layering various dimensions from different cultures in one locale is a complex form of assemblage and enables citizens to reach a richer variety of existence through superimposed pluralities. Superimposed cosmopolitan walks of life remind us the notion of palimpsest, where the individual manifests what is not always clearly visible in the big picture. Yet, one must not forget that visual dimensions of the notion of palimpsest is finally a representation and “representation includes everything people construct to be known as a visual record or figurative manifestation of that reality. […] Within this approach, architects usually reduce the definition of representation to the creation of such visual forms as drawings or models that selectively double or imitate the physical reality of a building. I would like to move beyond this traditional view to define representation as a culture-specific and dynamic process of establishing the relationships between reality and the signs created to symbolize this reality. In this process, reality becomes thinkable, and its meanings are symbolically assigned.” (PIOTROWSKI, A. AND ROBINSON, J.W (eds.): The Discipline of Architecture. 2001, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis)

Istanbul has been / is one of the most captivating milieus for the utmost presence of cosmopolitanism. Though difficult in many senses, the aura nourished by the exceptionally rich historical / cultural / architectural layering makes the city a “de rigueur” place to live internationally. This visually loaded presentation of many photographs will scan through various slices of the thick urban structure of this magnificent city in order to reveal the idiosyncratic urban superpositions. The collection of photographs will include images of relatively recent urban development, central locations, historical venues, various neighborhoods on the periphery, transportation, shopping, cultural (art & music) attractions and finally some humanscapes.

Since photography is a strong visual signifier in the world of architecture, design and art; one should keep in mind that photography can be utilized in the process of ‘constructing’ a new space, character, urban identity and resulting visual narrative from an existing spatial entity. This narrative can also be defined as a ‘manufactured cityscape’ which is a space beyond the so-called “objective reality.” It is rather a personally constructed reality that exists solely in the perceiver’s mind and will differ from people to people.

Session C

Tour 1: Architecture of Sultanahmet and Fener-Balat—Ahmet Ozbilge
Area 1 / Sultanahmet area highlights

The Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque is the most famous and visited historical mosque in Istanbul. The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. It was built between 1609 and 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I.

Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, now a museum. Famous in particular for its massive dome. it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and to have "changed the history of architecture." It was built between 532 and 537, during the rule of Emperor Justinian. The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydanι (Sultan Ahmet Square) with only a few fragments of the original structure surviving.

Area 2 / Fener-Balat

The old neighborhoods of Golden Horn where you can find the traces of Greeks, Jewishs, Bulgarians, Armenians of Ottoman Istanbul ... Many examples of old houses, chuches, synagogues, mosques etc... In recent years some of the buildings have been partially restored thanks to funds provided by the European Union. Balat is still known as Jewish neighborhood. And in Fener there is Greek Orthodox Patriarchate... The Church of St. George is not terribly impressive or important in terms of architecture, although it has all the opulence and beauty of any Orthodox church. The church's main boast, aside from its association with the Patriarch, are its artifacts and relics, which include: the patriarchal throne, believed to date from the 5th century; three rare mosaic icons; the Column of Flagellation to which Jesus was tied and whipped; relics of Sts. Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom; and the tombs of three female saints.

Session D

“City Planning and Urban Life”—Cengiz Bektaş

An overview of cities throughout the history of Anatolia. Ancient cities and their planning principles versus today’s city planning. How architecture relates to city planning issues. Daily life of man, his culture, ties with architecture and cities…

Session E

Panel: “City as Inspiration”
“Transformation of Industrial Settings: Skateboarding Park at Santralistanbul”—Sebnem Y. Cinici, Fulya O. Akipek

Istanbul has a long history, that makes it unique as a megacity. Especially, because of its geographic location Istanbul is a very significant urban setting and was the capital city of different empires — from Roman to Ottoman — since 330 till 1922. Laying on both sides of the Bosphorus is one of the main reasons that made Istanbul an important industrial center also. When thought through her long history, this aspect of the city presents us numerous industrial buildings and settings.

The Electric Plant at Silahtaraga, now Santralistanbul, is one these heritages of the city which dates back to 1914. It was the first Electric Plant of the Ottoman Empire at urban scale and was the electric distribution center of Istanbul till 1983. The industrial buildings were renovated and the setting is transformed into a culture, art and education center.

Skateboarding is a rising trend among teen agers in İstanbul, which has become visible as one of the layers of social life in public spaces, squares, urban voids and surfaces. What is interesting about skateboarding is that as an informal and outdoor sport, it can bring especially young people together. Currently, the skate boarders and their audience use existing public spaces such as stairs, ramps, squares, sculpture areas, empty pools etc. Skateboarding is such a dynamic sport activity that it has the power to transform the atmosphere of its performance setting.

Sometimes named as an extreme sport due to the sizes and difficulty of the skateboarding movements, this informal activity has its own set of rules and furnitures specific to certain types of movements. Thus these types and rules of the sport entail specific spatial arrangements. These potentials about skateboarding was the motivation to carry the subject to the Graduate Design Studio II at the Computational Design Program at Yildiz Technical University.

As one of the major subjects of computational design and computer-aided manufacturing, parametric design requires to reveal the design parameters at the first hand. These parameters can be set by the design approach, the dynamics of site, the program requirements etc. The designer has to decide on the relevant parameters and develop a system of relations for the parts and the whole determined by these parameters. The opportunity to change the parameter values helps designer to see the further applications of the same system.

Skateboarding park as a design issue has its inner parameters such as skateboarding positions and their furnitures. In the studio, the students collected data about the body positions during skateboarding activities, the distances between the furnitures, physical dimensions, ratios, angles, the minimum and maximum curvatures; and tried to set the rules and computational definitions for the geometry of the skateboarding park.

Finally, trying to develop a computational design and manufacturing strategy for the skateboarding park at Santralistanbul, turns out to be an endeavour in the city that adds another layer of architectural production. While transforming the historical industrial setting of old electric plant into a contemporary university campus, architectural merit of the site rises up by adding further layers of Zeitgeist. It is the unique value of Istanbul as well as Santralistanbul that it is a dynamic setting whose identifying parameters and their relations change all the time due to the inconceiveable vigorousity of the city. It is what makes Istanbul an inspiring land of creative ideation throughout different times.

“Istanbul Han Buildings and Their Typological Analysis”—Assoc. Prof. Salih Ofluoglu Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Dept. of Enformatics

Han is an important building type of civil Turkish Architecture that mainly serve commercial activities in Ottoman, pre-Ottoman and even modern Turkish cities. These buildings are used interchangably with earlier caravanserai buildings, which are inns with large courtyards serving tradesmen and passangers traveling inter cities and regions, as they both possess almost the identical building scheme and serve similar needs.

The earliest Turkish cervanserai is dated as early as early 11th century (Guran, 1976) and located near Meshed, Iran. Some of the richest examples of caravanserai buildings were built in Asia Minor during the eras of Seljuk and Ottoman Empires between the 13th and19th centuries. They promoted the safe trading environment in Asia minor and offered such amenities as accommodation, food and shelter for tradesmen, passangers and their animals.

Han buildings, in contrast to caravanserai buildings, offers a trading environment among manufacturers, suppliers, artisans and buyers within the city itself. They were built in prominent Ottoman cities such as Bursa, Edirne and Istanbul in order to foster commercial activities and social life in the city. They made a great impact on the creation of the lines of businesses and a guild structure among the members of businesses.

Istanbul han buildings are particularly important in terms of their somewhat varied plan layouts and facade organizations, vertical expansions that respond to the commercial needs and exting urban conditions of the city. Most han buildings in Istanbul were built between the 15th and 19th centuries.

Some of the han buildings in Istanbul were vanished in time; other remaining ones, others still exist to provide various commercial functions, but were considerably modified in time.

Unfortunately, there is a limited number of studies examining the design concepts, language of these buildings.

This presentation outlines a study that is undertaken to better understand the plan and structural typologies of this building type on a digital environment.

Session F

Tour 2 / Yildiz Technical University Campus and Buyukdere Avenue—Aynur Ciftci, Ahmet Ozbilge

Tour will focus on general architectural characteristics of Yildiz Technical University campus which used to be the palace complex of late Ottoman period, recent architectural developments along the historic route named Buyukdere Avenue with stops at a business center at Levent and Maslak area to have information on highrise buildings designed by US, European and Turkish architects.

Session G

Tour 3 / “Bosphorus in history and its architecture”

The Bosphorus also known as the Istanbul Strait, is a strait that forms part of the boundary between the European part of Turkey (Thrace) and its Asian part (Anatolia). It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles. The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, it connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara (which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea). It is approximately 30km (19mi) long, with a maximum width of 3,700m (12,139ft) at the northern entrance, and a minimum width of 700m (2,297ft) between Kandilli and Aşiyan; and 750m (2,461ft) between Anadoluhisarι and Rumelihisarι. The depth varies from 36 to 124m (118 to 407ft) in midstream.

Two bridges cross the Bosporus. The first, the Bosphorus Bridge, is 1,074m (3,524ft) long and was completed in 1973. The second, Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Bosphorus II) Bridge, is 1,090m (3,576ft) long, and was completed in 1988 about 5km (3mi) north of the first bridge. Plans for a third road bridge, which will allow transit traffic to by-pass the city traffic, have been approved by the Ministry of Transportation. The bridge will be part of the "Northern Marmara Motorway", which will be further integrated with the existing Black Sea Coastal Highway. The location will be somewhere north of the existing two bridges, but the exact path is kept secret to prevent false rumour trading of lands on the possible routes.

Another crossing, Marmaray, is a 13.7 km (8.5 mi) long undersea railway tunnel currently under construction and is expected to be completed in 2012. Approximately 1,400 m (4,593 ft) of the tunnel will run under the strait, at a depth of about 55 m (180 ft).

Session H

Architectural Sketching Workshop: “Utopias for Istanbul”—Moderators: Omur Barkul, Cengiz Bektas, Burcu Celik, Peter Cook, Irem Kiris, Suha Ozkan, Yael Reisner, Murat Soygenis, Bora Soykut

The workshop aims to bring together ideas and utopias for Istanbul. Workshop participants are expected to discuss their ideas and utopias with their group moderators and present them on paper in sketch format. The group moderators will encourage the participants to have a brainstorming session during this workshop. Registrants may participate in this workshop by generating ideas and utopias for Istanbul on their own time during the course of the conference and by handing in their sketches to Organizing Committee at the end of the conference as indicated on the conference program. Participants will remember the knowledge gained on Istanbul’s multi-layered structure through the lectures and tours during the conference and they are to propose ideas - even if they seem utopias - for Istanbul to display its cultural mosaic more and more…Each A4 paper can be a different utopia or all A4 papers can be used to explain a single utopia. Utopias will be published in a book and distributed to all participants.

Session I

“Urban Planning Efforts in Istanbul During Republican Period”—Zekai Gorgulu

Istanbul, with its population rising to 12 million inhabitants from 600,000 in early 1920’s, had seen a series of urban planning efforts during the 87 years of republican era. These efforts for greater Istanbul of 5,196 squarekilometers will be reviewed in this lecture.

Session J

Tour 4 / Social Security Complex—Irem M. Kiris

Social Security Administration Complex (1962-1964) in Zeyrek by the architect Sedad Hakkι Eldem is reckoned among the most significant buildings of the Republican period Turkish architecture. It had been designed as the result of a competition and was awarded an Aga Khan Prize in 1986.

The complex consisting of shops, offices and a clinic, had been fragmented to a modest scale and into articulated blocks of varying sizes, located in accordance with the topography; with varying levels of the surrounding ground. The building blocks integrate with open spaces and connect to a double-height interior street. Although constructed in reinforced concrete, they carry traditional Ottoman architectural features with their facade projections, horizontally emphasized wide eaves, and rhythm in the range of vertically proportioned windows. The window style also relates to the architecture of the Atatürk Boulevard and to the traditional timber houses of Zeyrek. Remarkable for its sensitivity to the urban scale and texture, the scheme belongs to the ‘contextualized modernism’ of 1960s and Eldem’s late career.

Zeyrek Region

The triangular site of the Social Security Complex sloping toward the old neighborhoods of Zeyrek, is a historically sensitive site. Zeyrek, with Byzantine and Ottoman background, is settled on one of the seven hills of Istanbul. Havariun Church, one of the earliest churches of Byzantine Istanbul, where the Patriarchate was housed, had later been replaced by Fatih Kulliye during the Ottoman reign. The 12th century Byzantine sanctuary, monastery complex of the Pantocrator is situated nearby. Slope ascends starting from the Atatürk Boulevard and the Golden Horn, forming terraces that date back to the Byzantine era in the region. Therefore structure of the roads, architecture and landscape are defined by the topography.

Throughout its history, Zeyrek region has been important as a medium class housing settlement. Tradition of timber row houses is typical of the neighborhood.

Sedad Hakkι Eldem

Sedad Hakkι Eldem (b Istanbul, 18 Aug 1908; d Istanbul, 7 Sept 1988) was descended from an elite Ottoman family. He trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul (1924-8) and in the office of Hans Poelzig in Berlin (1929-30). Inspired by Auguste Perret, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, Eldem was a committed Modernist searching for a culturally relevant Turkish architecture. His early works include the State Monopolies General Directorate (1934-7), Ankara, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (1942-3), Istanbul, and Faculty of Sciences (1943-5), Ankara, the latter two, in their monumentality and use of stone, reflecting the acknowledged influence of Paul Bonatz with whom Eldem collaborated in this period. His paradigmatic Taslik Coffee House (1947-8; destr. 1988), Istanbul, was modelled after a 17th-century timber house and reflected Eldem’s lasting preoccupation: the reinterpretation of the timber-frame Turkish house in modern terms using reinforced concrete. Wide overhanging eaves, modular window patterns and traditional plan types constitute the leitmotifs of his personal style, elaborated over decades in numerous private houses along the banks of the Bosphorous in Istanbul and employed on larger scales in a number of embassy buildings in Ankara. Eldem also directed the architectural department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul where, in 1934, he established the National Architecture Seminar for the survey and documentation of traditional residential architecture. He published numerous works including his monumental Türk Evi (1984-7). Internationally he won recognition for his Zeyrek Social Security Agency Complex (1962-4), Istanbul, a contextualist scheme sensitive to the scale and character of the surrounding urban fabric, which won him a prestigious Aga Khan Award in 1986. (Source: The Grove Dictionary of Art)

Session K

Tour 5 / Topkapi Palace—Ahmet Ozbilge

The Topkapι Palace was the official and primary residence in the city of the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years of their 600-year reign, from 1465 to 1856. The palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments and is a major tourist attraction today, containing the most holy relics of the Muslim world such as the prophet Muhammed's cloak and sword. Topkapι Palace is among those monuments belonging to the "Historic Areas of Istanbul", which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. Initial construction began in 1459, ordered by Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Byzantine Constantinople. The palace is a complex made up of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings. At the height of its existence as a royal residence, the palace was home to as many as 4,000 people, formerly covering a larger area with a long shoreline. The complex has been expanded over the centuries, with many renovations such as after the 1509 earthquake and 1665 fire. It held mosques, a hospital, bakeries, and a mint. The name directly translates as "Cannon gate Palace", from the palace being named after a nearby, now destroyed, gate.

Topkapι Palace gradually lost its importance at the end of the 17th century, as the Sultans preferred to spend more time in their new palaces along the Bosporus. In 1856, Sultan Abdül Mecid I decided to move the court to the newly built Dolmabahçe Palace, the first European-style palace in the city. Some functions, such as the imperial treasury, the library, mosque and mint, were retained though. After the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1921, Topkapι Palace was transformed by government decree on April 3, 1924 into a museum of the imperial era. The Topkapι Palace Museum is under the administration of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The palace complex has hundreds of rooms and chambers, but only the most important are accessible to the public today.

Session L

Tour 6 / Covered Bazaar —Ahmet Ozbilge

The Grand Bazaar is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with more than 58 covered streets and over 1,200 shops which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. The bazaar contains two bedestens (domed masonry structures built for storage and safe keeping), the first of which was constructed between 1455 and 1461 by the order of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. The bazaar was vastly enlarged in the 16th century, during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and in 1894 underwent a major restoration following an earthquake.