From Istanbul
This guided Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum tour in Sultanahmet is a short, focused excursion for travellers who want to understand the artistic heritage of the Islamic world beyond Istanbul's famous mosques and palaces. With a professional English-speaking guide, entrance fees and return transport to your hotel included, it fits easily into a morning or afternoon of your stay and works well as a private tour for couples, families or small groups.
Arriving in Istanbul on a cruise ship? The Istanbul Turkish & Islamic Arts Museum Tour is one of the shore excursions we regularly arrange for cruise guests calling at the port of Istanbul. Because it runs as a private tour, we plan the timing around your ship: your guide and driver meet you at the cruise terminal, and the programme is adjusted to your all-aboard time. Tell us how many hours your ship stays in port and we will confirm that the full programme fits comfortably. Send us your ship name and the date of your call in Istanbul and we will confirm availability.
The museum's highlight is its outstanding carpet collection, including rare Seljuk-era pieces and carpets woven in the Iranian and Caucasus regions, whose patterns and colours reveal how weaving traditions travelled across centuries and empires. Equally impressive are the hand-written Qurans and calligraphy works, where the art of beautiful writing reaches extraordinary levels of detail, as well as early manuscripts and documents.
Your guide also leads you through galleries of wooden, glass, ceramic and stone objects created by craftsmen from former Islamic lands, explaining the techniques, symbols and history behind each piece. It is an enriching way to broaden your knowledge of Islamic art, history and culture, and an ideal complement to a day of sightseeing in the old city of Istanbul. Lunch is not included, but Sultanahmet offers plenty of restaurants nearby for a meal after the visit.
Your full day programme — click to see every stop.
Museum Programme Your English-speaking guide meets you and takes you to the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum in the Sultanahmet district, the historic heart of Istanbul. Inside, you begin with the museum's celebrated carpet halls, where you see fine examples from the Seljuk period alongside carpets woven in the Iranian and Caucasus regions, and your guide explains how to read their motifs, colours and knotting techniques. Next you move on to the calligraphy collection, with beautifully hand-written Qurans and other manuscripts and documents that show the importance of the written word in Islamic culture. The visit continues through galleries of wooden, glass, ceramic and stone artefacts made by artists and craftsmen from across the former Islamic world, each piece offering a glimpse into the daily life, beliefs and aesthetics of its time. Throughout the tour your guide puts the works into their historical context, helping you understand the links between the Seljuk, Ottoman and wider Islamic artistic traditions. At the end of the visit you are transferred back to your hotel in an air-conditioned vehicle.
Istanbul → Istanbul Turkish
Modern, comfortable and fully-equipped vehicles — the same fleet we use on your tour.
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Real, verified reviews from travellers who explored Turkey with us.
My husband and I chose Inca Tour for our honeymoon and we are so glad we did. The boutique hotel selection was beautiful and the Bosphorus dinner cruise was so romantic. Thank you for making our trip special!
It was important for us to have a guide who spoke Russian, and Ender was wonderful. He explained every detail at Dolmabahce Palace. The Princes Islands day trip was a beautiful break from the busy city.
Our guide Ender was incredibly knowledgeable about Turkish history. The hot-air balloon ride at sunrise in Cappadocia was the highlight of our trip. Everything was perfectly organized — from airport pick-up to the last d...
Ender was our Italian-speaking guide and we felt like family. He took us to local spots tourists never see. The hotel choice in Sultanahmet was perfect for walking everywhere.
10+ years later we still talk about our Cappadocia balloon ride and the Bosphorus sunset cruise. Some memories are timeless. Thank you Inca Tour!