Old Town Guided Segway Tour Istanbul

Sultanahmet, the Hippodrome and the great monuments

The ride begins in Sultanahmet, two minutes from the tram stop, with a safety briefing and a few minutes of practice; Segways balance themselves, and beginners feel confident almost at once. Then you roll onto the Hippodrome of Constantinople, the long square where Byzantine chariots raced and where the Egyptian Obelisk, the Serpent Column and the Walled Obelisk still stand on the old central spine. The guide tells the story of the races and ceremonies held here, and you stop for photographs in front of the Blue Mosque with its six minarets.

From the square the route passes the outer walls and imperial gate of Topkapı Palace, the residence of the Ottoman sultans for four centuries, and the rose-coloured mass of Hagia Sophia, built in the sixth century as the cathedral of the Byzantine capital. Seeing these three monuments together in a quarter of an hour makes an Istanbul old town Segway tour the fastest way to orient yourself on a first day.

Gülhane Park

Behind Topkapı Palace the route drops into Gülhane Park, the former outer garden of the palace, opened to the public in 1912 and today the oldest and largest park of the old city. Its long avenue of plane trees runs down towards the point where the Golden Horn meets the Bosphorus, with flowerbeds that blaze with tulips every April, lawns where families picnic, and the old Column of the Goths hidden among the trees at the far end.

The group takes a break here, about twenty minutes to rest, buy a tea or a simit from a kiosk at your own expense, and practise a little more on the avenue. The park's paved paths and gentle slopes are ideal Segway ground, and the guide uses the pause to explain the neighbourhood of Sirkeci below and the ferries you can see leaving Eminönü. This is also the point on the Istanbul Segway tour where the group turns west and starts to climb towards the older hills of the city.

Column of Constantine and Beyazıt Square

Climbing along the tram line, you reach Çemberlitaş, the Column of Constantine, a porphyry column raised in the year 330 to mark the dedication of the new Roman capital; it once carried a statue of the emperor who gave it his name, and the iron hoops that bind its scorched drums gave the quarter its Turkish name, the hooped stone. It is one of the oldest monuments in the city still standing where it was built, and the guide explains how the ancient Forum of Constantine once surrounded it.

A few minutes further on is Beyazıt Square, laid out on the site of the Forum of Theodosius, whose carved marble fragments lie beside the road. The square is framed by the monumental gate of Istanbul University, the Beyazıt Mosque of 1506, the oldest surviving imperial mosque in the city, and the entrances of the Grand Bazaar just behind, where thousands of shops open every day except Sunday. There is a short photo stop before the group rides on.

Şehzade Mosque and the Valens Aqueduct

West of Beyazıt the route reaches the Şehzade Mosque, the Mosque of the Prince, built between 1543 and 1548 by the architect Sinan for a young prince who died before his father the sultan. Architectural historians call it Sinan's first masterpiece: a central dome carried on four half-domes in a perfectly symmetrical plan, slender minarets with carved stone decoration and a serene garden of tombs. The Segways stop at the courtyard wall for a look at the domes and the story of how the building prepared Sinan for the Süleymaniye a few years later.

Just beyond stands the Valens Aqueduct, known in Turkish as Bozdoğan Kemeri, built in the fourth century to carry water from the forests of Thrace to the cisterns of the city. More than nine hundred metres of its double tier of arches survive, striding across the modern boulevard between the third and fourth hills, and riding under them is one of the most memorable moments of the tour.

Süleymaniye Mosque and the Golden Horn view

The last climb brings you to the Süleymaniye Mosque, the great work of Sinan for Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, completed in 1557 on the crest of the third hill. Its dome is among the largest in the city, its four minarets mark the four sultans who reigned since the conquest, and the complex around it once held a hospital, schools, a hospice and a public kitchen that fed the poor. The mosque is open to visitors outside prayer times, but on this tour the stop is at the garden terrace behind it, where the view opens over the Golden Horn to Galata and the Bosphorus.

From here the group coasts back downhill to the starting point in Sultanahmet, completing a three-hour loop of about ten kilometres. Riders on the evening departure see the domes and minarets floodlit and the lights of the Galata Tower across the water, a favourite of our Istanbul team in summer when the heat has passed.