Çukurcuma located in Beyoglu district and  known with the antiques trade.

Antiques tell the history of Istanbul and it is a nice way to read the history of a city by even just looking at antiques…You don’t need to buy. Some sellers can be annoying when you dont buy but being sales man means getting used to “just looking” responds. So don’t mind these kind of sellers.

You can find nice coffee shops. Çukurcuma used to be prefered as a living area by writers and artists. Nowadays maybe it is slowly changing.

Çukur means pit and Cuma means Friday in Turkish. When you combine them you cannot reach a meaningful word. The area is on  the bootom of Beyoğlu district so they call it pitfriday…This the most common explanation.

Some people believe that Fatih Sultan Mehmet, Ottoman Empire who  conquered Istanbul in 1453 performed his rituel prayer on Friday in a pit on this area so they gave it this name.Nobody knows…

After exploring this part you can walk to Cihangir and drink a nice it in a cafe under a huge plane tree, namingÇınarlatı Kafe.