Beautiful Place though I would advise you to take sungasses because the brightness of the white marble in some areas is blinding.
Contains an armoury of ancient weaponary which is fascinating with swords the size of small trees and old school guns.
Also contains beautiful architecture and some stunning views of the river running through Istanbul.
If i recall correctly it cost about 10YTL to get in but was well worth it.

So worth the visit and the bustle of crowds. Allow 4-5 hours here. They offer an audio guide for 5YTL, although I felt the Frommer’s guidebook was just as good. Also, they ran out of audio guides for the Harem, so I recommend getting there early. Definitely see the Treasury, which spans 4 rooms and holds amazing glittering objects of the Ottoman Empire. Also pay the extra money and tour the Harem, which has excellent mosaics, tiles, and frescoes in the lavish (and still well-preserved) rooms). The best part for me, however, were the rooms that contained religious artifacts such as Moses’ rod, David’s sword, Joseph’s turban, Muhammad’s footprint and beard hairs, and John’s skull and arm. I would add that I appreciate the Palace (and especially the harem) more after reading up about Turkey’s history, particularly the period of sultan rule….so you may want to read up on that, particularly on the hierarchy within

Topkapı Palace was built shortly after the Ottomans took over Istanbul in 1453. It was used by the sultans from then until 1839. The sultans then moved to more European palaces they’d had built, and the palace became a museum.

It’s very impressive. It has vast green courtyards, a warren of tiled rooms where the sultan lived and kept his harem (which has its own separate guided tour, and definitely worth it), pavillions, an armoury, and holy relics (beard whiskers, teeth, cloak, etc) of the prophet Mohammed. The treasure rooms hold emeralds and rubies and daggers and candlesticks, plus some Christian relics (the arm and skull of John the Baptist, in their golden reliquaries) and the world’s fifth largest diamond (86 carat).

It’s as grand as palaces I’ve seen in England and France and Spain and India, but different from them all. You can easily spend an entire day here, the grounds are very large.