Topkapı Palace

톱카프 궁전

Topkapi Palace is a huge palace complex in Istanbul, Turkey, on Seraglio Point, a hill overlooking the Golden Horn where the Bosphorus meets the Sea of Marmara. Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror ordered it built in 1459, six years after he captured Constantinople. For roughly 400 years it served as the centre of the Ottoman Empire.

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At a glance

Country: Türkiye
Location: Istanbul, Türkiye
Built: 1465
Type: Palace

Quick answers

Where is Topkapı Palace?

Topkapı Palace is in Istanbul, Türkiye.

When was Topkapı Palace built?

Topkapı Palace was built in 1465.

Home of the Ottoman sultans for some 400 years, entered through the twin-towered Gate of Salutation.

The sultans lived and governed here until Sultan Abdulmejid I moved the court to Dolmabahce Palace in 1856. In 1924 the government turned it into a museum. It is part of the Historic Areas of Istanbul, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. The name Topkapi means 'Cannon Gate'; at first the palace was called the Imperial New Palace.

Courtyards, harem and treasury

The palace is not one big building but a complex of low buildings built around courtyards and joined by galleries, few of them taller than two storeys. It is organised around four main courtyards, each more private than the last, plus the harem. The harem was the home of the sultan's mother, wives and children, and Turkish sources say it has about 250 rooms. The Imperial Treasury shows jewels and royal objects, including the famous Spoonmaker's Diamond and the Topkapi Dagger.

Life at the heart of an empire

The palace was not only a home. Government meetings, ceremonies and offices were all here, and leading officials, including the Grand Vizier, met in the Imperial Council building. Mehmed II set the basic layout, with his private rooms at the highest point of the hill, and his buildings wound down toward the water. The palace was expanded between 1520 and 1560 under Suleiman the Magnificent, and the imperial harem moved here after a great fire in 1541. After the 17th century the sultans preferred their new palaces along the Bosphorus.

Kitchens and museum collections

The palace kitchens, rebuilt by the court architect Mimar Sinan after a fire in 1574, form two rows of tall chimneys and hold a big collection of porcelain; the Ottomans had access to Chinese porcelain from the mid-15th century. Today the museum is run by Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It also shows Ottoman clothing, weapons, armour, miniature paintings, religious relics and illuminated manuscripts, though only the most important of its hundreds of rooms are open to the public.