Zeyrek Cinili Hamam

When visitors recline on the polished marble platform inside the Zeyrek Cinili Hamam, ready to be scrubbed clean under its soaring dome studded with star-shaped skylights, they’re not just bathing in luxury—they’re bathing in history. This grand Turkish bath (hamam) reopened in May 2024 after laying derelict for decades. It was originally built in the early 1500s atop one of Istanbul’s massive Byzantine-era cisterns by Mimar Sinan, the Ottoman Empire’s greatest architect. A painstaking 13-year-long restoration uncovered fragments of the thousands of vibrant blue-and-white patterned tiles that once adorned the bath’s interior and gave the building its name (cinili means tiled in Turkish). These finds are displayed in an adjacent new museum that digitally reconstructs the tiles’ original layout and traces where some of the missing pieces ended up—including in the collection of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. Also on view are stone carvings and pottery dating from the Byzantine period that were found during the restoration process, as well as a collection of exquisite bathing bowls, mother-of-pearl combs, and other accessories that bring Ottoman hamam culture to life. Inside the bath, contemporary versions of traditional pestemal (towels) and nalin (clogs) by fashion designer Hussein Chalayan carry the past into the present in style.

Buy your copy of the World's Greatest Places issue here