Visit Istanbul Guide
The Spice Bazaar
The Spice Bazaar Istanbul visitors mean is Mısır Çarşısı, the L-shaped market built in 1664 to fund the New Mosque beside it. It is free, it takes twenty minutes, and it is more geared to visitors than any other market in the city — which is why this page spends as much time on the streets behind it. The wider plan is on the Istanbul city guide homepage.
Quick answer Twenty minutes inside, an hour behind it
Free, small and quick: two vaulted arms of shops selling spices, teas, dried fruit, lokum and saffron at visitor prices. The produce streets immediately behind — Tahmis and the fish market lanes — are where the same goods cost less and the city shops.
Key takeaways
- Buy spices by weight in the back streets, buy the pretty boxes inside if the box is the point
- The Grand Bazaar is ten minutes uphill and closed on Sundays; this one is not
- A food tour covers the back streets properly, which is the part that repays a guide
- The Eminönü ferry piers are outside the door — Bosphorus by boat
Key facts
Opening hours
| Shop hours, daily | Not officially published–— |
|---|
Closed Religious holidays; individual shops vary
Planning it
- Time needed
- Not stated; our routing: 20 minutes inside, an hour with the streets behind
- Address
- Rüstem Paşa Mah., Erzak Ambarı Sok. 92, Eminönü, Fatih
What is worth buying, and what is not
Worth it: pul biber and Urfa chilli, sumac, wild oregano, and the small dark dried figs and apricots sold loose. Turkish delight from a counter that cuts it in front of you rather than one selling sealed gift boxes. Loose black tea, which Turkey grows on the Black Sea coast and drinks by the tulip glass.
Treat with suspicion: saffron at a price that seems generous — real saffron is one of the most expensive spices on earth and the cheap version is safflower; 'Turkish Viagra' pastes, which are a tourist joke sold at a serious price; and anything a shop insists on vacuum-packing for you before you have agreed to buy it.
Prices inside are set for visitors. The streets behind, particularly toward Tahmis Sokak and the Rüstem Paşa steps, sell the same spices from ordinary shops at ordinary prices.
The better market is outside the market
Walk out of the western arm and you land in a grid of lanes selling cheese, olives, sucuk, kitchen gear, coffee ground while you wait, and fish being unloaded a hundred metres away. This is the district that supplies the city's kitchens, and it is where the Rüstem Paşa Mosque hides upstairs above the shopfronts, its interior lined with the best İznik tiles in Istanbul and almost nobody in it.
Eminönü outside is a transport interchange: ferries to Kadıköy and Üsküdar, the T1 tram, and the Galata Bridge with its fishermen on top and fish restaurants below. Give the whole area an hour and it is worth more than the market it is named for.
Food walks that start here
Prices and ratings are the platform's own figures on 2 September 2026. There is no entry fee to compare against — a guide buys you the back streets and the stalls worth stopping at.
from $135
Istanbul: Guided Food Tour with 20+ Tastings on 2 Continents
Five and a half hours and twenty-plus tastings on both the European and Asian sides, ferry crossing included.
Check Availability
from $119.94
Istanbul: Guided Food Tour with Ferry Ride and Tastings
Six-hour eating walk with a ferry ride, small group, several sit-down stops rather than only street snacks.
Check Availability
from $17.38
Istanbul City Walk: Galata Tower, Istiklal Street & Karaköy
Two-hour walk through Galata, İstiklal Street and Karaköy, the modern-city counterweight to the Sultanahmet monuments.
Check AvailabilityPrices, ratings and details are the platform's own, checked 2026-09-02; dollar figures are the listed prices — the platform bills in your account's currency.
Spice Bazaar questions
Is the Spice Bazaar worth visiting?
For twenty minutes, yes — the vaults are handsome and the display is the photograph people want. For actual shopping, the streets behind it are better value. Give the area an hour rather than the market ten minutes.
Is the Spice Bazaar open on Sunday?
Unlike the Grand Bazaar, it generally trades on Sundays, though individual shops set their own days and the market publishes no official timetable. Religious holidays close most of it.
What should I buy at the Spice Bazaar?
Chilli flakes, sumac, dried figs and apricots, loose tea, and lokum cut from the slab. Skip cheap saffron, which is usually safflower, and the novelty pastes.
Is it cheaper than the Grand Bazaar?
For spices, not necessarily — both are priced for visitors. The produce shops one street back are cheaper than either.
What else is nearby?
Rüstem Paşa Mosque with its İznik tiles, hidden above the shops; the Galata Bridge and its fishermen; and the Eminönü ferry piers for a Bosphorus crossing.
Page last reviewed 2026-09-02. Prices, hours and terms are set by the venue or operator and confirmed at checkout.
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