Great Palace Mosaics Museum Ticket
A single surviving floor from the Great Palace of Constantinople, the imperial complex that once ran from the Hippodrome down to the sea.
- At the gate
- £6.80
- Allow
- 1h 30m
- District
- Sultanahmet
- Closed
- Open daily
The Great Palace Mosaics, in short
A single surviving floor from the Great Palace of Constantinople, the imperial complex that once ran from the Hippodrome down to the sea.
What remains is a peristyle courtyard pavement u2014 hunting scenes, animals, children, pastoral life u2014 dated by specialists to between 450 and 550 AD, and among the finest Roman-era floor mosaics anywhere.
What it costs
Walk-up entry is 45 Turkish lira, roughly u20ac8. Included on the pass. The museum is small and can get crowded, so an early slot helps.
Getting there
It is entered through the Arasta Bazaar behind the Blue Mosque, in Sultanahmet. Take the T1 tram to Sultanahmet.
How long to allow
Thirty to forty minutes. It is one room and a walkway, but the detail rewards a slow circuit.
What you are looking at
The original pavement covered around 1,870 square metres and contained roughly 40,000 pieces per square metre, laid by craftsmen brought in from across the empire.
The tesserae are limestone, terracotta and coloured glass. Look for the elephant fighting a lion, the boy feeding a donkey, and the man milking a goat u2014 domestic scenes sitting alongside imperial ones.
Frequently asked questions
- The museum is small and gets busy, so booking or arriving early is sensible.
- 45 Turkish lira at the door, around u20ac8. Free with the pass.
- Off the Arasta Bazaar behind the Blue Mosque, in Sultanahmet.
- Dated to roughly 450 to 550 AD, from the peristyle courtyard of the Byzantine Great Palace.