The Spice Market is an L-shaped covered building down near the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) and the Galata Bridge. It was actually built to be part of the Mosque complex in the early 17th century. You heard me right. The "New Mosque" was built in the early 17th Century!
When built to help add to the Mosque's revenues, this market sold spices because at the time they were very special additions to food, adding vital flavours and colours. They were expensive too, and Istanbul was the perfect place to sell them given its strategic location along the spice route between the Orient, where most of them were grown, and Europe.
Today it is still possible to buy spices here, but also turkish delight and nougat and tea and nuts and dried fruit. And caviar, another expensive commodity and not so far from its source in Russia on the other side of the Bosphorous. The colours and smells are still wonderful and the place is always seething with people.
To be truly memorable, every market needs an oddity, which I found at the end of the L, in a pet store. That is an oddity in itself, as Turks don't really have pets despite the enormous number of street cats. And maybe it's just as well and this pet store offers leeches. What, you don't like leeches? Why not? They are easy to feed, easy to clean, and they take almost no room. Who wouldn't want to take a nice little leech home as a souvenir. I'm sure airport customs will be happy to usher it through!
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| Awww, aren't they cute? How do you choose which one to take home for a cuddle? |
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