How many shops does the Grand Bazaar have? Ask three people, get three numbers. Nobody knows. First clue: this is a city, not a market.
It didn't start with streets. In 1453 Mehmed II took the city and needed income for his endowments. So between 1455/56 and 1460/61 he built a strongroom: the İç Bedesten, a lockable hall of fifteen domes for trading valuables.
Shops and hans, the trade's working buildings, gathered around it. A second domed hall, the Sandal Bedesten, followed, though when is argued: a 1478–79 deed is read as crediting Mehmed; another account says around 1545, under Suleiman.
The lanes between were open to the sky. Then came the fires. 1515. 1546. 1652. 1660. 1701.
After that last one, an order of August 1702 banned wooden shops. They were rebuilt in stone and the streets vaulted over. The covered bazaar got its roof from fire.
Around 1638 the traveller Evliya Çelebi counted about 3,000 shops, plus 300 in the hans. A late-1800s document, whose source can't be verified, lists 4,399. Today's guesses: 3,000 to 4,000. No official statistics. One count says 61 covered streets. One.
Here's the twist: the bazaar got smaller. Repairs after the 1894 earthquake drew tighter boundaries, leaving about half the hans outside. In 1954 a fire took around two-fifths of the market. Repairs ended on 28 July 1959.
So today's maze is smaller than the one before 1894. Still a city.
Skip the main street. Find the two domed bedestens, the old core, then follow the han names: Paçavracı, Sarnıçlı, Ali Paşa, Cebeci, Yolgeçen, Bodrum, Yarımtaş. The hans are workplaces: ask before going deeper, and take a no at once. Pick a weekday; opening days and hours weren't confirmed when we checked.
