Istanbul Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia & Cistern of Theodosius
Description
Visit Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and Cistern on a 3-hour guided tour. Explore in small groups with skip the line tickets included. Learn about Istanbul’s rich Ottoman and Byzantine history.
Tour Options
Itinerary
The German Fountain in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square is a neo-Byzantine style monument, gifted by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1901, famed for its golden mosaic dome.
Sultanahmet Square is the historic heart of Istanbul, once the Hippodrome of Constantinople, today home to iconic landmarks like the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and the German Fountain.
The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) is Istanbul’s most famous mosque, built in the 17th century. It’s renowned for its six minarets, grand dome, and stunning blue İznik tiles.
Hagia Sophia is Istanbul’s most iconic monument, originally built as a Byzantine cathedral in 537. It later became an Ottoman mosque, then a museum, and is today a functioning mosque, admired for its massive dome and stunning mosaics.
The Basilica Cistern is an underground wonder in Istanbul, built in the 6th century to store water for the Byzantine Empire. It’s famous for its forest of marble columns, atmospheric lighting, and the mysterious Medusa head bases.
Step beneath Istanbul's streets and discover the ancient Cistern of Theodosius, a hidden Byzantine masterpiece brought to life through immersive lighting and history.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
- A headscarf is required for women when visiting the Hagia Sophia Mosque.
- The Blue Mosque is an active place of worship; visitors may need to wait outside during prayer times.
- Please arrive at the meeting point on time. If you are more than 5 minutes late, the guide will not be able to wait. For the sake of the tour’s atmosphere and flow, we cannot allow late arrivals to join once the tour has started.
- Please be aware that once the tour begins, the guide will be fully focused on leading the group and cannot answer phone calls or assist latecomers.
- Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to welcoming you on the tour!
Reviews(503)
Amazing tour. Highly recommend. Our guide ( feel bad but forgot his name) was amazing!!! Full of knowledge, kind, patient and looked after everyone. I know Hagia Sophia’s entry isn’t cheap however we found the tour a little on the expensive side?
Cem was truly a joy to have as a guide. He was knowledgeable, personable and made history come alive. We all agreed this was a fascinating tour and worth the time and money despite how scorchingly hot it is today
The blue mosque is just WOW. Our guide Cem (Jam) was very knowledgeable, had a good sense of humour and ran this tour well. He also gave us some tips for lunch and dinner drinks which we followed and really enjoyed both experiences.
Had an excellent, friendly tour guide who was genuine, smart and funny at times to. I am a history teacher with a million different questions and he was great about answering them with detail and grounded about anything he just didn’t know (not much!). I am so glad I went!
The guide was very friendly and informative. The sights and history were fascinating.
We visited all the places with our guide who told us much about the history of Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire and answered all our questions - highly recommend.
We truly enjoyed our tour today with Can. He was so knowledgeable and gave us so much of nuance of Istanbul. We were very impressed! 5 stars
Can was our guide and he was so knowledgeable. Highly recommended doing the tour rather than just walking through on your own. We would have missed so much of the nuances of the mosques. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We only got a tour of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. The tour guide completely skipped the Cistern of Theodosius. He was knowledgeable in guiding us, but extremely unkind and inattentive. Anytime he stopped speaking he went on his phone. After only showing us two of the three locations of this prepaid experience, he asked the group if anyone wanted to join him for a coffee. My family decided to stay to be kind and pay for whatever drink he wanted, but he for real went on his phone and stood up for us to get the check. Then left as my dad gave him a tip and proceeded to make weird comments. The couple in our group were extremely nice and I thought this was the reason we had a better time on our tour. We aren’t exactly sure what our tour guides name was.
Good history. Our family was together with another couple.
