During the summer of 2010, I embarked on a trip across Europe and my adventures in Italy were heavily inspired by Assassins Creed 2. I scheduled in trips to Florence,Rome, Venice, Monteriggioni and San Gimignano to witness the locations and landmarks from the game in real life. It was a fantastic journey and a very surreal experience. I blogged during my travels and right up to this day The Assassins Creed 2 Tour post remains the most viewed article on my website. Little did I know that this past summer I would have the perfect follow up article.

A few months ago I visited the lovely country of Bulgaria and during my stay I embarked on a two day excursion to the neighbouring city of Istanbul in Turkey. This essentially continued my Assassins Creed Tour but with a big difference this time. With my tour of Italy, I had already played the game before I visited the landmarks which resulted in me having a much closer relation to Ezio and events in the game. When Brotherhood was released I had already visited Rome and the thrill was placed more in the sense that you felt like you had been there but were curious to see what the city would have looked liked that far in the past compared to today.

Istanbul provided a very different feeling. Knowing nothing more than the Hagia Sofia would be in the game it made you feel like a detective trying to figure out what landmarks would make it into the game and what they would look like. The change of location to another historical period also asked more questions than provided answers. The developers may approach the game differently with a new location and that was made apparent with the addition of the Hook blade in the very first screenshot.

I wanted to wait for the right time to write this article and couldn’t think of a better day than the official release date of Assassins Creed Revelations. Over the past few months Ubisoft Montreal have revealed locations which will and will not appear in the game. I have retained galleries of sights visited as a whole because I believe it will help readers obtain the modern day atmosphere of the city and provide a good comparison to how the game is modelled.

The old town was our first destination. In this area the most iconic structure sits towering above the city, The Blue Mosque. Why is it called The Blue Mosque? It is because it is constructed from blue marble. The tour guide showed us a monument with a roof coated in gold leaf mosaic and the obelisk standing outside the Blue Mosque. These obelisk’s tend to have been outside every major landmark I visited across not just Italy but Europe, and they are associated with a range of theories but we will not go into that now.

The Blue Mosque from the interior features long hanging candle chandeliers spanning metres from the roof to near ground level. The mosaics and painted designs spanning the walls and ceilings of the mosque are incredibly detailed and the most exciting aspect was wondering how much detail the graphic artists on the team would place into the game version of the Blue Mosque. It would have been an incredible technical achievement for gaming if rendered true to life. It was therefore a disappointment that The Blue Mosque was built after the time period Revelations is set in and would not be making an appearance in the game.

Once outdoors, the area contains a large secondary structure similar to The Blue Mosque. Known as The Hagia Sofia, it was once a church that got converted into a mosque and is now a museum. The two landmarks are separated by visually rich green gardens and a few water fountains.

The Blue Mosque Gallery

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Beyond the landmarks, shopping has always been a part of culture throughout history. Over time, the creation of new products have resulted in a very different demand for what people go shopping for. The Grand Bazaar is what you could call a historic shopping mall which retains the same purpose today. In modern day Istanbul you will find an overlap in some products such as jewellery and spices although a drastic change in the form of fake designer clothing and electric lighting. The bazaar is quite large and has seen a fair amount of expansion over time. This is recognisable by the variety in architecture throughout the bazaar from plain stone walls through to painted and more decorative walls. Multiple entrances to the bazaar are numbered to prevent you from getting lost and feature large gate doorways.

The Grand Bazaar Gallery

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It may not be a commonly known fact that Istanbul in fact spans two continents, Europe and Asia. The Bosphorous River is the partition between the two. Our tour guide took us across a large bridge into the Asian part where we had a refreshing drink overlooking the Bosphorous. On the second day, we participated in a river cruise which took us up and down the river showcasing various focal points on the shore. These included, fortifications, smaller mosques and royal palaces. We even saw a few locals having a swim in the river and a floating club that featured a swimming pool and restaurant.

The Bosphorous River Gallery

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Istanbul has always been a city for traders from Europe and Asia. The Asian traders used spices from their countries to trade for European goods and it resulted in spices become firmly infused into Turkish culture and in their food. Historically, spices were separated from other goods as they were sold in different locations. You can easily compare it to today where to buy food you would visit a supermarket and to buy other goods you would visit a shopping centre. In modern day Istanbul, there is a separate spice market where customers can purchase cooking spices and also sweet dishes and desserts such as Baklava and Halwa.

The Spice Market Gallery

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My final gallery explores a few extra pictures including local food and the decor in a local leather shop.

Extras Gallery

Thank you for reading about my tour of Istanbul. I hope this will help you gain a better insight into the modern day city and appreciate the great work the team at Ubisoft have done in capturing the atmosphere, landmarks and essence of a city full of history. There will be a new Assassins Creed next year and if possible, I will try and continue my tour of the franchise locations so I can report back to all my loyal followers.