Guide
The bedesten was built in 1417-18 by Çelebi Sultan Mehmed as an endowment to the Eski Cami. It is a building of fourteen domes with ornamented walls faced in cut stone of two colours, and the domes are covered with lead.
The building measures 40.54 by 74.94 metres and has doors on all four sides. Under each dome is a pointed-arched window, and inside there are fourteen vaulted cells along each of the long faces and four along each of the short.
Evliya Çelebi writes that the diamonds and jewellery in the bedesten were worth several Egyptian treasuries and that sixty night watchmen guarded them.
Repaired in recent years, the bedesten is in use as a market.
