Istanbul by Lucretia Stewart

When I was a little girl, my father was attached to the British Embassy in Ankara and we spent our summers in Istanbul. I have a photograph of myself, posing coyly in a ballet position, in the grounds of what is now the British Consulate. Even from the picture, you can tell that the gardens are huge.

In Istanbul recently, I revisited the consulate where there is now a swimming pool and a tennis court for the use of consulate staff. High walls still surround the complex, but outside the roar of traffic is deafening and carbon monoxide permeates the air of the garden where once, according to the security officer, Agatha Christie sat and dreamt up ideas for mysteries - Murder On the Orient Express is set partly in Istanbul.

Istanbul, with a population of sixteen million and suburbs that stretch for miles and miles, is considered a 'hardship posting' and, despite its glorious skyline of mosques and minarets and the abundance of fish fresh from the Bosphorus, it is not difficult to imagine that a combination of damp and pollution make winters and high summer in the city pretty uncomfortable.

But, for the visitor, Istanbul is a magical city, an Aladdin's cave of treasures. Some are almost too well-known to be mentioned: the great stone mass of Haghia Sophia; the serenely beautiful Blue Mosque; Topkapi Palace with its fabulous collection of jewels and porcelain (immortalised in Eric Ambler's novel, The Light of Day, and later in the film, Topkapi, based on the book and starring Melina Mercouri and Peter Ustinov); the Süleymaniye, the masterpiece of Sinan, the chief architect of Süleyman the Magnificent, which is to Ottoman Istanbul what Haghia Sophia is to Byzantine Constantinople, and the Covered Bazaar are, as it were, just the tip of the iceberg. Others like the Basilica Cistern; the exquisite tiles of the Rustem Pasha Mosque; the Çemberlitas Hammam, the Turkish baths built to the designs of Sinan, and the Archaeological Museum, require a little more imaginative exploration.

You would need to spend years in Istanbul in order to see everything that is worth seeing but, if you have only a week or even just a long weekend, there are certain things which you really must do. The first stop has to be Haghia Sophia. This marvellous building, built by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century, has become an enduring symbol of Byzantine Constantinople.

The proximity of the Blue Mosque makes it tempting, particularly if you are pressed for time, to visit it immediately after Haghia Sophia. Resist that temptation and save the Blue Mosque for another day. The Blue Mosque is a triumph of a very different order; comparisons are invidious and unfair to both. Instead you could wander down the hill to Misir Carsisi, the Spice Bazaar, by the Galata bridge where the Golden Horn joins the Bosphorus. There is a lively open-air market around the bazaar, full of fresh fish and vegetables, and inside you can buy spices and Iranian caviar as well as jewellery and souvenirs.

Misir Carsisi is, however, merely a rehearsal for the Kapali Carsi, the Covered Bazaar and the shopping experience of all time. A survey in 1880 found that then it contained 4399 shops, 2195 ateliers, 497 stalls, 12 storehouses, 18 fountains, 12 mescits or small mosques, as well as a larger mosque, a primary school, and a turbe [an Ottoman mausoleum]. God, or rather Allah, knows what it contains now: row upon row of leather shops, jewellers, pottery, brass and copper ware. Istanbul, along with Bangkok, is possibly the most mercantile city in the world and touts of every kind will endlessly accost you. A lot of the merchandise is predictably junk, as the dealers themselves recognise, crying out as you walk past, "Let me help you spend your money. Come and look at my rubbish."

But there are still wonderful bargains to be had not least because inflation in Istanbul is running at 140% - the number of Turkish lira to sterling increased by 5% in the week I was there. Nine years ago I spent an entire day haggling over a pair of rose-cut-diamond star earrings. After many cups of coffee and much exchange of compliments, I came away with them at half the original asking price. Back in London, I had them valued and they turned out to be worth double what I had paid.

The mixture of sightseeing and shopping is an exhilarating one but, when you have had enough, take a boat down the Bosphorus (preferably a ferry as the small ones which you can hire are very slow) and enjoy the view. Alternately you could go across to Büyükada, one of the Princes' Isles in the Sea of Marmara. There are no cars on tranquil Büyükada and there are certainly worse ways to spend a couple of hours than lolling in the back of a horse-drawn phaeton, looking at the wonderfully-preserved yalis [wooden Ottoman houses], and then lunching off fresh sea bass or bream down by the port. At dusk, as the ferry carries you back to Istanbul, you can sit out on deck, reinvigorated by the fresh air, and admire one of the haunting skylines in the world.