Istanbul's Grand Bazaar is one of the world's oldest and largest covered markets, dating back to the 15th century.  It contains over 4000 shops and stalls spread over 60 streets, and the core of the original structure is still intact.   Merchants travelling on trade routes met here and over time the market grew larger and larger. 

Markets are one of my favorite places to visit and photograph when traveling, and the Grand Bazaar did not disappoint.  You can literally spend all day here, wandering around and getting lost in what very much resembles a maze of color, people, history, and culture.  I visited the Spice Bazaar the same day and probably took over 1000 photos that day, there is just so much visual excitement everywhere you look. 

Below are my favorite shots and most interesting finds: 

Photos of these colorful lamp shops are a quintessential Turkish scene. 

I thought these chess boards were quite unique. 

There are many antique stores in the market, and all over Türkiye for that matter. 

Some of them are filled to the brim with so many things!

It's always interesting to see what relics from the past end up in these stores. 

This is what one of the streets on the inside looks like.

This lamp store had such beautiful lamps!

There were some very intricately carved pipes.

And lots of just really random things, like this sign.

You will see these evil blue eyes everywhere in Turkey. They are known as a Nazar Boncuk charm and they keep away bad spirits.

These colorful oil burners were so beautiful as well. 

Lots of interesting art as well.

This last photo is really not the greatest technically speaking.  This lamp shop was probably one of the best for photos because it's nice and dark inside, but I was chatting to the staff member and completely forgot to take a good properly framed photo while inside.