Jewish Heritage Tour

Your private licensed tour guide will meet at the harbor / hotel's lobby to begin your tour of the major Jewish heritage sites in Istanbul. Transportation is via modern, comfortable air-conditioned car, van or mini-bus, appropriate to the size of your group. First we will drive to the Galata Quarter. The history of Jewish life in Galata began in Byzantine times when this was a walled city separate from Constantinople. After the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453, Jewish life in Galata was enlivened with the arrival of many new settlers, especially during the reign of Sultan Beyazit II. From the 1500s onward, Galata was mostly Jewish.