Film buffs will remember this palace from the movie “Topkapi” starring Melina Mercouri, Tony Curtis and Peter Ustinov– more on this subject when we come to describe the view from the hotel’s rooftop restaurant.

A leisurely 5 minute walk and you come to St. Sophia, the great basilica built by the Emperor Justinian, and across the fronting plaza you behold the superb Blue Mosque.

All around you are other treasures, among them Yerebatan Sarayi (Sunken Palace), an ancient cistern that saw world-wide exposure in the film “From Russia with Love” when James Bond rowed between its 336 columns.

Also, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, the Mosaic Museum, the Vakiflar Carpet Museum, the Binbirdirek Cistern and the Hippodrome with its 3500-year-old Egyptian obelisk are all here – after all, here you are in the heart of historic Istanbul, ancient Constantinople, New Rome, the original Big Apple of legendary fame in Norse tales. (Sorry, New York, but this city was renowned as the Big Apple when the Indians still owned Manhattan!)