Only a few minutes’ walk from the Blue Mosque, running parallel to Torun Sokagi, is a pleasant alley of shops built in what used to be a stable yard used by the cavalry. The "Cavalry Bazaar," as it’s called, is one of the less overwhelming places to shop in Istanbul, largely due to its self-contained, simple layout. The small shops line either side of one long street, in contrast to the maze of shops in the streets near the Grand Bazaar or Spice Market. There is one long stretch of small shops, and that’s it. If you’re in a less aggressive shopping mode or simply not up to tackling the larger markets, this is a good place to go.

There are a fair number of the ever-present carpet shops here, of course, but there are also many other types of shops as well, selling ceramics, leather goods, jewelry, books and illuminated manuscripts, pashminas and scarves, inlaid chess sets and boxes, and many folk crafts. My husband got a lovely belt and a painted vase there, while I bought a pashmina for much less than I’d expected to pay. Several Turkish people had told us that the Cavalry Bazaar was cheaper than the Grand Bazaar. We didn’t do enough comparison shopping to ascertain if this was true (and I suspect that, in any case, a lot depends on the buyer’s haggling skills), but prices did seem very reasonable. Admittedly, the selection is not as good as in the Grand Bazaar with its sixty-five streets and hundreds of shops, but what could possibly compete with that? Still, we liked this market well enough to stroll its length on two separate occasions, making our purchases on the second visit after deciding in the Grand Bazaar that we’d probably be able to find the items we wanted cheaper in the Cavalry Bazaar.

A trip here can be easily combined with a visit to the Mosaic Museum, which lies alongside the bazaar. In fact, the exit from the museum lets you out into the middle of the bazaar. When the larger attractions of Sultanahmet such as the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya have become crowded by mid-day, taking a side trip to this attractive little bazaar and the Mosaic Museum provides an afternoon’s respite from the crowds. The shopkeepers seem to regard the afternoon hours as a time of relaxation as well, and you’ll undoubtedly see men carrying tiered metal trays loaded with the ubiquitous tulip-shaped glasses of hot apple tea for the afternoon break.