Valide Han Review

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Valide Han

  • Address: Çakmakçilar Yokusu, Eminönü, Istanbul

Fodor's Review:

The mass of winding streets between the Grand Bazaar and the Golden Horn contains many old Ottoman commercial buildings. The most important of these was the Valide Han, which was used to store goods coming off the ships anchored in the Golden Horn, and as hotels for passing merchants. The Valide Han was built by the Valide, literally the "Sultan's mother," Kösem Sultan, who as regent to two sons and a grandson legally ruled the Ottoman empire for a generation until her death in 1651 in a coup led by her daughter-in-law. It's still a working building, with porters coming and going with giant weights on their backs, but visitors are welcome to have a look around. Opposite the Valide Han are two more 18th-century hans, the Büyük Yeni Han and Küçük Yeni Han, and the Kürkçü from the 1470s.

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