Bazaars are famous throughout The Republic of Turkey. Don’t confuse Turkey’s famous bazaars with American shopping malls. While both serve as major centers of commerce, most Turkish bazaars were built over 650 years before construction on Wolfchase Galleria ever began. Many bazaars were built by sultans and other dignitaries during the Ottoman Empire, and were a part of mosque complexes. These buildings played an important role in the modernization of Ottoman trade. The world’s biggest emporium is the Covered Bazaar of Istanbul, which served as the seat of the Ottoman government from 1453 until the end of World War I. The Covered Bazaar was built around 1460 by Sultan Mehmet II, who conquered Constantinople (which later became Istanbul). A labyrinth of passageways and corridors, it has more than 4,000 (that’s right... 4,000) shops, 2,000 workshops and numerous vendors making and selling everything, including jewelry, handwoven carpets, antiques, ceramics, leatherware, alabaster, copper goods, furniture, fabrics, blue jeans and thousands of other items. The Covered Bazaar also has a dozen restaurants, 60 sandwich buffets, two mosques, six mescits (small mosques), several barber shops and a coffeehouse. An average of 500,000 people visit the complex every day!