The only city spanning two continents, bridging empires
Explore Istanbul with Wexplo, an AI audio guide that narrates Hagia Sophia's transformation from church to mosque to museum and back to mosque, the Grand Bazaar's 500-year-old trade routes, and the Bosphorus strait that divides Europe and Asia. Istanbul is where the Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern Turkish worlds converge.
Get started
Free on iOS and Android. No sign-up needed.
Stories play automatically when you reach a place. No route to follow.
Hands-free narration about every place you pass. Ask questions, go deeper, skip ahead.
Highlights
Why it works here
Istanbul's layers of civilizations make it overwhelming without context. Wexplo narrates the Byzantine foundations beneath the Ottoman mosques, the trade routes that converged at the Grand Bazaar, and the Bosphorus geography that gave the city its strategic importance for 2,500 years.
April to May or September to November for comfortable walking between the hills.
Turkish, English
Compact center — everything on foot
Walk from Sultanahmet to Galata across the Galata Bridge in the late afternoon. Fishermen line the bridge, the mosques of the Old City glow behind you, and Wexplo narrates the Golden Horn waterway and the Genoese traders who built the Galata Tower ahead.
FAQ
Yes. Download the app, open it in Istanbul, and start listening. No account required. A premium plan adds offline mode and deeper content layers.
Yes. Save stories before your trip and listen without internet. Useful if you're on roaming or in areas with spotty coverage.
14 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, Hindi, and more. Switch anytime in the app.
No group, no schedule, no fixed route. Wexplo plays stories when you reach a place — you walk wherever you want, at whatever pace you want. Completely hands-free.
Keep exploring
Free app. Works offline. Stories in 14 languages.