Topkapi Palace — Heart of the Ottoman Court

For four hundred years, the Topkapi Palace on the tip of the Istanbul peninsula was the nerve center of an empire that stretched across three continents. Inside its walls: the imperial treasury containing the Spoonmaker's Diamond and the Topkapi Dagger; the sacred relics room holding the mantle of the Prophet; the Divan where the Grand Vizier governed in the sultan's name; the harem where five hundred women lived and where the mothers of sultans wielded more political power than most kings. The palace was a city within the city — five thousand people lived and worked inside it at its peak — and its garden faced the waters where Europe and Asia met.

These signs carry the imperial gate, the Divan council chamber, the Bosphorus view, and the dome that presided over the intersection of worlds.