Today we visited the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.  This is the largest covered market in the world, covering 61 streets and more than 3000 vendors.  In addition, there were many more vendors on the outside surrounding this market. There is no way that anyone can visit more than a small portion of the bazaar in a single afternoon.

It was difficult taking any photographs that would actually give a sense of the enormous scale of this place — the indoor streets are narrow, crisscrossed by overhead electrical cables, and usually packed with people.  It is estimated that between 250,000 and 400,000 people visit this bazaar every day.

You can buy nearly anything at the bazaar.  From blue jeans, to buttons, to scarves, lights, fishing poles, ceramics, and even assault rifles. Not only is everything available to purchase, but every item is also negotiable, meaning most transactions are accompanied by a period of haggling.

As with the Spice Market a few blocks away, there were plenty of vendors of Turkish Delight.  We stopped at one such vendor (who spoke 12 languages!), sampled many, and ended up buying a kilo of Delight plus dried apricots, taking home the box seen in the lower right.