• The Insider
  • Planning
  • Sightseeing
  • Transportation
  • Food & Drinks
  • Going Out
  • Shopping
  • FAQ
  • Tours

Istanbul Insider

Istanbul travel guide and advice by locals.

Guided Tours in Dolmabahçe Palace

In order to visit Dolmabahçe Palace (Dolmabahçe Sarayı) you must take one or both of the guided tours. The Selamlık tour takes you through the quarters reserved for men, while the Harem tour shows you the apartments of the sultan’s family.
Only a limited amount of people are allowed into each section per day, so make sure to check out the opening hours. If you only want to go on one tour, visit the Selamlık.

Dolmahaçe Palace by night seen from the Bosphorus
Dolmahaçe Palace by night – © The Istanbul Insider

The entrance of the palace is located close to the clock tower, which was only added in 1895. You’ll find the ticket sales booth a bit further at the left. If you have some time to spare, you may want to wait for the change of the guard, which takes place every hour in summertime.

Once you entered the complex, enjoy the well-maintained gardens surrounding the palace as well as the magnificent Bosphorus views. Just before entering the palace itself, please note the working flower clock and beautiful Imperial Gate at the left. Once used by the sultan and his ministers, it’s every Tuesday afternoon the stage for a performance of the Mehter or Janissary Band.

Just outside the palace, a small sign will tell you when the next tour starts, Selamlık or Harem and whether it’s in Turkish or English. Normally these guided tours start every 25 minutes, but in busy periods they may raise the frequency. The tour itself progresses through the palace at a pretty high pace. Make sure you stay close to the guide if you want to hear what he or she has to say.

Selamlık Tour

The tour starts in the main entrance (medhal) hall where you’ll get some general instructions. Please notice the English chandelier with its sixty arms and the two large Turkish porcelain vases. The guide will then lead you through the secretariat’s room, the entrance hall and the exhibit hall, with all various precious gold, silver, porcelain and crystal items on display. But it’s after passing the palace’s mosque (mescit) and the resting room that things really start to get interesting.

Great chandelier of Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul
4,5 ton chandelier – © The Istanbul Insider

You take the staircase, referred to as the crystal staircase because of its balustrade in Baccarat crystal, to the palace’s second floor. Prepare for an eye-popping experience when you enter the ambassador (süfera) hall, undoubtedly one of the most important rooms in the palace which used to host formal receptions and meetings. I still don’t know what was more impressive: the 88 square meter Iranian Tebriz carpet, the pair of bearskins (one a gift from the Russian tsar Nicholas II, the other ordered simply to preserve symmetry), the silver clock from Egypt providing the correct time, date, air pressure and temperature, or the 2000 kg chandelier with matching crystal three meter high mirrors.

Impressed? Do try to keep up while the tour continues, because you ain’t seen nothing yet. You run out of superlatives while passing rooms like the privy chamber, offering some of the most beautiful parquet in the entire palace. Or the study room with its Steinway piano dating back to 1911. Not to mention the magnificent hamam and all the portraits and paintings you see along the way.

But all this is a mere prelude to the grand finale: the muyade hall. It covers approximately 2.000 square meters, is 36 meters high and has a dome with a diameter of 25 meters. The Hereke carpet on the floor is 124 m². But the masterpiece is without a doubt the English chandelier, built in 1853, holding 664 bulbs and weighing 4,5 tons. According to the guide, it’s still the world’s largest chandelier.

The room, capable of holding 2500 guests, was used to host all state ceremonies and receptions. It was also in this room that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk first spoke to the people of Istanbul as the President of the Turkish Republic. Following his death on November 10, 1938, Atatürk’s body was placed in a casket and remained in this room from 16 to 18 November. The room was opened for the public to express their condolences.

Harem Tour

Deathbed of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul
Deathbed of Atatürk – © Ist. Ins.

Although it doesn’t have the same wow-factor as the Selamlık, the Harem is still worth touring. The apartments of the sultan and his family are, compared to the rest of the rooms in the Dolmabahçe Palace, less spacious.

The Harem consists of a series of salons, galleries and hamams and a post-circumcision resting hall. Especially noteworthy are the suite of the Valide Sultan (the sultan’s mother), the blue and pink salons, the bedroom of Sultan Abdül Aziz with the custom made bed to carry the 150 kg amateur wrestler, as well as the study and bedroom used by Atatürk.

Filed Under: Attractions Tagged With: Dolmabahçe, Guided Tours, Harem, Istanbul, Palace, Selamlik

Comments

  1. Phil Coulter says

    October 23, 2022 at 6:04 pm

    I read that there are only 3000 persons allowed to tour the palace each day so you should reserve a ticket in advance. How does one go about doing that?

    Reply
    • Erlend says

      October 24, 2022 at 8:05 am

      You can’t really, unless it’s a guided tour. I just suggest you to be there half an hour before it opens and you’ll be fine.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Best Sellers

  • Email
  • RSS
  • Twitter

About Us

About
Contact
Frequently Asked Questions
Sitemap

Popular Attractions

Hagia Sophia
Topkapi Palace & Harem
Dolmabahçe Palace
Bosphorus Tour
Whirling Dervishes

Travel Tips

Accommodation & Locations
Airport Transportation
Istanbul Kart, Museum Pass, Tourist Pass
Public Transportation
Taxi’s in Istanbul

© 2011–2025 The Istanbul Insider – Terms of Service • Privacy Policy • Affiliate Disclaimer
Istanbul Insider
Data and Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we and our partners use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us and our partners to process personal data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site.
Click below to consent ('Accept') to the above or make granular choices
Manage Cookie SettingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.

Your choices on this site will be applied only for this site. You can change your settings at any time, including withdrawing your consent, by going to the Privacy Policy page of this site.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement1 yearThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
CookieDurationDescription
_gat1 minuteThis cookies is installed by Google Universal Analytics to throttle the request rate to limit the colllection of data on high traffic sites.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form.
visitor_id5 yearsThis cookie include cookie name plus the unique identifier of the visitor account. The value stored is the unique ID of the visitor which is used for tracking the visitor.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.