Looking for the best Istanbul quotes, captions and quotes by the iconic Orhan Pamuk for your Instagram photos? Istanbul is truly a magical place to visit and there are honestly so many Instagrammable places in Istanbul!
Whether you’re looking for quotes or captions to go with your photos of the iconic Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia or The Grand Bazaar, Galata Tower, Dolmabahçe Palace and Ortaköy Mosque, you’ll find the perfect caption for your Istanbul Instagram photos!
We all know the feeling when you’ve got so many photos of somewhere to post to Instagram but you’re just stuck for what to write in the caption – especially Istanbul that is such an amazing city to explore and take photos of.
This article cuts out all the hard work of trying to come up with a caption for your Instagram photo as it gives you all the best Instagram captions, quotes and hashtags about Istanbul!
All you have to do is choose one you like, copy and paste and get on with enjoying your trip or editing your photos!
If you’re heading to Istanbul, you’re there right now, or you’re just wanderlusting and looking for some travel inspiration, you’ll find 122 Istanbul puns, famous quotes, inspirational captions and hashtags for your Istanbul Instagram pictures right here!
Best Istanbul Quotes For Instagram Captions
1. “Istanbul – the constant beating of the wave of the east against the rock of the west.” – Susan Moody
2. “Istanbul is a magical seal which unites Europe and Asia since the ancient times. Without a doubt, Istanbul is certainly the most beautiful place of the world.” – Gerard De Nerval
3. “Istanbul is a unique city that unifies the east and the west, and offers all kinds of freedom to mankind.” – Max Müller
4. “If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul” – Alphonse de Lamartine
5. “If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital” – Napoleon Bonaparte
6. “People were right when they say there is no other place on Earth as beautiful looking as Istanbul.” – François-rené De Chateaubriand
7. “A more beautiful scenery than the one in Istanbul does not exist all over the world.” – Dorina Neave
8. “Istanbul, a universal beauty where poet and archaeologist, diplomat and merchant, princess and sailor, northerner and westerner screams with the same admiration. The whole world thinks that this city is the most beautiful place on Earth.” – Edmondo De Amicis
9. “Either I conquer Istanbul or Istanbul conquers me” – Mehmed the Conqueror
10. “Paris is a beautiful hall, London is a beautiful park, Berlin is a beautiful barracks but Istanbul is a beautiful city.” – Zülfü Livaneli
11. “Istanbul is inspiring because it has its own code of architecture, literature, poetry, music.” – Christian Louboutin
12. “Whoever possesses Constantinople ought to rule the world.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
13. “New and old, all writers know that Istanbul is located at the most prestigious spot of the world.” – Gugios Inciciyan
14. “All other cities are doomed, but I imagine that as long as people exist, Constantinople will exist.” – Petrus Gyllius
15. “Istanbul was the capital of the world. There is no rival in the world in terms of geographic location.” – Joseph Helle
16. “Maybe Istanbul was the city in the sky where the people who were our reflections lived.” – Burhan Sönmez
17. “Holy Istanbul! Your name is the most enchanting one of all names which enchants me” – Pierre Loti
18. “The treasure of the Turkish motherland, the wealth of Turkish history, the Turkish nation’s apple of the eye, Istanbul is the city that has a special place in the hearts of all citizens.” – Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
19. “You can’t find another world, nor another sea. This city will follow you anywhere.” – Konstantinos Kavafis
Best Istanbul Captions For Instagram
20. Istanbul is always a good idea
21. But first, Istanbul
22. Istanbul, thank you for making me feel so alive
23. Meanwhile, in Istanbul…
24. Somewhere between living and dreaming, there’s Istanbul.
25. Came for the sights, stayed for the kebabs
26. I’m hopeful in Constantinople
27. Just you, me, and the Bosporus Sea
28. Anything is possible. This is Istanbul.
29. Istanbul is calling and I must go.
30. Hello, Istanbul. You’re looking gorgeous today.
31. Happiness is…. holding tickets that say Istanbul!
32. You can leave Istanbul but it will never leave you.
Short Istanbul Captions For Instagram
33. Meet me at the Hagia Sophia
34. Mamma Mia, the Hagia Sophia!
35. Browsing at the bazaar
36. Istanbul, you have my heart
37. I left my heart in Istanbul
38. There’s no time to be bored in Istanbul
39. I fell in love, his name is Istanbul
40. There’s a new sultan in town
41. Wanderlust and city dust
42. Being a turkey in Turkey
43. You cannot stop Istanbul.
44. All you need is love and a doner kebab
45. Life is short. Eat that kebab
46. My kind of city
Funny Istanbul Puns
47. Istanbul is a bit bazaar!
48. I’m hammam a great time here in Istanbul!
49. Istanbul, I’ll definitely be baklava!
50. I mosque come back to Istanbul soon!
51. I mosque ask you if you love Istanbul as much as I do
52. I’ll be there in just a minaret
53. I’m Turkish Delight-ed to be in Istanbul
54. Istanbul holds the Tur-key to my heart
55. This is not my last trip to Istanbul. I’ll definitely Bebek.
56. Istanbul is the city that never Bosphorests
57. I falafel that I have to leave Turkey
58. You doner know
Quotes About Food In Istanbul:
59. ‘Nothing beats Istanbul when it comes to street food. The city’s sidewalks are a walkable sampler platter.’ ― Fuad Alakbarov
60. ‘Istanbul’s food culture is as diverse as its architecture, with influences coming from the Persians and Ottomans of the past; its Middle Eastern neighbors, the Greeks, Armenians, Turks and Kurds; nearby Asian and European countries; and Christian, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish communities. The result is a riot of tastes.’ – Rebecca Seal
61. ‘There is as much to see in the former Constantinople as there is to discover in its food – and that’s a lot. The city’s dishes are so diverse, surprising, and refined that if you are new to Istanbul, you might wonder how you could have overlooked it for so long. Eating there is like putting together a beautiful mosaic because Ottoman cuisine is a vast gastronomic culture that spans epochs and influences from Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean – it evokes journeys, histories and peoples.’ – Pomme Larmoyer
62. ‘Istanbul shares with its residents and visitors alike a great love affair with food. You will always find something to eat in the city, whatever the time of day or night.’ – Pomme Larmoyer
63. ‘Food is at the center of everything here, whether in upmarket areas like old money Nisantasi, where you’re perhaps more likely to catch a whiff of truffles than charcoal-grilled meats or on the waterfront at Galata Bridge buying a fish sandwich and beer taken from a bucket of rice.’ – Rebecca Seal
Orhan Pamuk Quotes About Istanbul:
Orhan Pamuk is a prominent writer from Istanbul. He is Turkey’s best-selling writer, with over thirteen million books sold worldwide and recently won a Nobel Prize for Literature. Here are some of Orhan Pamuk’s best quotes.
64. ‘If I see my city is seen as beautiful and bewitching, then my life must be so too.’ ― Orhan Pamuk
65. “To savor Istanbul’s back streets, to appreciate the vines and trees that endow its ruins with accidental grace, you must, first and foremost, be a stranger to them.” – Orhan Pamuk
66. “Life can’t be all that bad, I’d think from time to time. Whatever happens, I can always take a long walk along the Bosphorus.” – Orhan Pamuk
67. ‘Istanbul is a vast place. There are very conservative neighborhoods, there are places that are upper class, Westernised, consuming Western Culture.’ – Orhan Pamuk
68. ‘To travel along the Bosphorus, be it in a ferry, a motor launch, or a rowboat, is to see the city house by house, neighborhood by neighborhood, and also from afar as a silhouette, an ever-mutating mirage.’ ― Orhan Pamuk
69. ‘Street vendors are the songbirds of the streets, they are the life and soul of Istanbul, he said. Under no circumstances must they ever be banned.’ – Orhan Pamuk
70. ‘For me, it has always been a city of ruins and of end-of-empire melancholy. I’ve spent my life either battling with this melancholy or (like all İstanbullus) making it my own.’ ― Orhan Pamuk
71. ‘I consider myself Istanbul’s storyteller. My subject matter is my town. I consider it my job to explore the hidden patterns of my city’s clandestine corners, its shady, mysterious places, the things I love.’ – Orhan Pamuk
72. ‘I have always preferred the winter to the summer in Istanbul. I love the early evenings when autumn is slipping into winter when the leafless trees are trembling in the north wind and people in black coats and jackets are rushing home through the darkening streets. I love the overwhelming melancholy when I look at the walls of old apartment buildings and the dark surfaces of neglected, unpainted, fallen-down wooden mansions: only in Istanbul have I seen this texture, this shading.’ – Orhan Pamuk
73. ‘I think perhaps it is a generational thing. I talk to younger people and they say, Where is this melancholy city you talk about My Istanbul is a sunny place.’ – Orhan Pamuk
74. ‘To be able to see the Bosphorus, even from afar—for İstanbullus this is a matter of spiritual import that may explain why windows looking out onto the sea are like the mihrabs in mosques, the altars in Christian churches, and the tevans n synagogues, and why all the chairs, sofas, and dining tables in our Bosphorus-facing sitting rooms are arranged to face the view.’ ― Orhan Pamuk
75. ‘I had the feeling that focusing on objects and telling a story through them would make my protagonists different from those in Western novels – more real, more quintessentially of Istanbul.’ – Orhan Pamuk
76. ‘We had no desire to live in Istanbul, nor in Paris or New York. Let them have their discos and dollars, their skyscrapers and supersonics transports. Let them have their radios and their color TV, hey, we have ours, don’t we? But we have something they don’t have. Heart. We have a heart. Look, look how the light of life seeps into my very heart’ – Orhan Pamuk
77. ‘Writers like Pierre Loti, by contrast, make no secret of loving Istanbul and the Turkish people for the opposite reason: for the preservation of their eastern particularity and their resistance to becoming western.’ ― Orhan Pamuk
78. ‘Culture is a mix. Culture means a mix of things from other sources. And my town, Istanbul, was this kind of mix. Istanbul, in fact, and my work, is a testimony to the fact that East and West combine Culture gracefully, or sometimes in an anarchic way, came together, and that is what we should search for.’ – Orhan Pamuk
79. ‘With time, lifelike music, art, and stories—would rise and fall, eventually to end, but even years later those lives are with us still, in the city views that flow before our eyes, as memories plucked from dreams.’ ― Orhan Pamuk
80. ‘In the mid-nineteenth century, steamships revolutionized sea travel, bringing closer the great cities of Europe; it made short visits to Istanbul possible. In time, some of those who committed their impressions to paper would inform a new idea of Istanbul created by a handful of local writers; but from the moment of their arrival, these steamships gave the city a new look. A company initially trading under the name of Sirketi Hayriye and later known as Sehir Hatlari (City Lines) was set up and soon every Bosphorus village had its own landing station; as the ferries began to ply the straits, the city took on a faintly European aspect.’ – Orhan Pamuk
81. ‘In our household doubts more troubling than these were suffered in silence. The spiritual void I have seen in so many of Istanbul’s rich, Westernised, secularist families is evident in these silences. Everyone talks openly about mathematics, success at school, football, and having fun, but they grapple with the most basic questions of existence – love, compassion, religion, the meaning of life, jealousy, hatred – in trembling confusion and painful solitude. They light a cigarette, give their attention to the music on the radio, return wordlessly to their inner worlds.’ ― Orhan Pamuk
Funny Istanbul Quotes
Looking for some funny quotes about Istanbul? See if any of these quotes put a smile on your face!
82. ‘Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople. Been a long time gone, oh Constantinople. Why did Constantinople get the works? That’s nobody’s business but the Turks!’ – The Four Lads
83. ‘The Iron Rule of prudence for an Istanbulite Woman: If you are as fragile as a tea glass, either find a way to never encounter burning water and hope to marry an ideal husband or get yourself laid and broken as soon as possible. Alternatively, stop being a tea-glass woman!’ – Elif Shafak
84. ‘Within Istanbul, there’s a ton of people who are totally hip – like, the hippest people you could ever meet.’ – Lou Barlow
85. ‘The coffee’s good in Italy. It’s good in Spain. It’s good in Istanbul. The coffee’s not so good in America.’ – Joey Kramer
86. ‘I found that the loudest fans in the world are in Istanbul.’ – Roger Waters
Quotes About Traveling to Istanbul
87. ‘Marseilles, Barcelona, Trieste, Istanbul – each romance the Mediterranean in its own fashion, mostly by embracing the sea in sweeping C-shaped bays that date back to antiquity.’ – Andre Aciman
88. ‘Where would you like to go, what would you really like to do with your life? See Istanbul, Port Said, Nairobi, Budapest. Write a book. Smoke too many cigarettes. Fall off a cliff but get caught in a tree halfway down. Get shot at a few times in a dark alley on Morrocan midnight. Love a beautiful woman.’ – Ray Bradbury
89. ‘There’s no more shopping in Paris than there is at a bazaar in Istanbul, but they’re all wonderful.’ – Iris Apfel
90. ‘So you set out to travel to Rome and end up in Istanbul. You set off for Japan and you end up on a train across Siberia. The journey, not the destination, becomes a source of wonder.’ – Loreena McKennitt
91. ‘To the one in the skies, this city must look like a scintillating pattern of speckled glows in all directions, like a firecracker going off amid thick darkness. Right now the urban pattern glowing here is in hues of orange, ginger, and ochre. It is a configuration of sparkles, each dot a light lit by someone awake at this hour. From where the Celestial Gaze is situated, from that high above, all these sporadically lit bulbs must seem in perfect harmony, constantly flickering, as if coding a cryptic message to God.’ ― Elif Shafak
92. ‘We docked at Karakoy, home in Byzantine days to Genoese sailors. I remember the metallic surfaces that morning, the monotone grey, the harshness of the arrival hall where we disembarked and cleared customs. Istanbul does not present a welcoming face to newcomers – perhaps no city does. It was clear that we were no longer in the Mediterranean, but had entered a climate more Balkan than Aegean, a city that seemed on the face of it to have more in common with Sofia or Belgrade, which were once part of the Ottoman Empire, than with those sun-drenched former seats of the empire.’ – Richard Tillinghast
93. ‘It should have been the Arabian Nights, but to Bond, seeing it first above the tops of trams and above the great scars of modern advertising along the river frontage, it seemed a once beautiful theatre-set that modern Turkey had thrown aside in favour of the steel and concrete flat-iron of the Istanbul-Hilton Hotel, blankly glittering behind him on the heights of Pera.’ ― Ian Fleming
94. ‘So far I had been travelling alone with my handbook and my Western Railway timetable: I was happiest finding my own way and did not require a liaison man. It had been my intention to stay on the train, without bothering about arriving anywhere: sight-seeing was a way of passing the time, but, as I had concluded in Istanbul, it was an activity very largely based on imaginative invention, like rehearsing your own play in stage sets from which all the actors had fled.’ – Paul Theroux
95. ‘I was struck by the ancient, pagan feel of the place. New Orleans doesn’t feel like any other American city I’ve been to. It has an atmosphere like Rome or Istanbul, a sense of the veil being very thin between this world and the world of the fictional and the dead. It is an eerie, haunted, and beautiful place – as any port should be.’ ― Craig Ferguson
96. ‘I first went to Istanbul about twelve years ago. I stayed in Sultanahmet in a hotel next to the Blue Mosque, in a room so small I had to move my suitcase to get out of bed. But it didn’t matter: the sheer atmosphere of the muezzin call to prayer at what was probably four o’clock every morning, the old wooden houses in the streets all around, the closeness of the Topkapi Palace, the Byzantine splendor of Hagia Sophia almost next door – all this was enough to fill me with thoughts of being in the most fabulous city in the world.’ – Rick Stein
More Quotes About Istanbul
97. “There are some cities in the world, they would have looked much more beautiful had they never been a city and İstanbul is such a city.” ― Mehmet Murat Ildan
98. “Istanbul owes its extraordinary situation to Golden Horn, the Marmara Sea, and The Bosphorus.” – Edmondo De Amicis
99. “Istanbul these days has as much dynamism as New York.” – Genco Gulan
100. ‘But Istanbul is a city of easy forgettings. Things are written in water over there, except the works of my master, which are written in stone.’ – Elif Shafak
101. ‘This Captain had been brought up in Istanbul. His mind was made of minarets and domes. He capped himself with spacious ease. He was his own call to prayer.’ ― Jeanette Winterson
Quotes About Istanbul Culture & History
Istanbul is an incredible city and is the only city in the world to straddle two continents! It is also one of the most significant cities in the history of the world and is overflowing with history. Check out these quotes about the culture and history of Istanbul.
102. ‘On the meeting point of two worlds, the ornament of Turkish homeland, the treasure of Turkish history, the city cherished by the Turkish nation, İstanbul, has its place in the hearts of all citizens.’ – Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
103. ‘It is Istanbul’s multi-dimensional nature, past, passing, to come, that fanned my own love affair with the city, a relationship that has endured over four decades. But, for me, Istanbul’s cultural, political, and emotional strength comes from the fact that the city’s narrative is not confined bylines in time. It is a place where people are connected across time by place, which is why I embarked on the Heraklean, sometimes Augean, the task of using clues in the landscape to tell a story of this city from prehistory to the present.’ – Bettany Hughes
104. ‘The Turks can be killed, but they can never be conquered.’ – Napoleon Bonaparte
105. ‘Exotic, vaguely sinister with its skyline of onion-domed mosques and slender minarets, its ornate Topkapi Palace housing the sultan’s seraglio, its noisome Haydarpasar stews, the luxury hotels overlooking the Bosporus, the Golden Horn separating the city from its wealthy suburbs, Constantinople had seen Saracens and Crusaders eviscerate one another, had watched red-bearded Sultan “Abdul the Damned” butcher his subjects in the streets and seemed stained by its memories.’ ― William Manchester
106. ‘The great trains are going out all over Europe, one by one, but still, three times a week, the Orient Express thunders superbly over the 1,400 miles of glittering steel track between Istanbul and Paris. Under the arc-lights, the long-chasissed German locomotive panted quietly with the labored breath of a dragon dying of asthma. Each heavy breath seemed certain to be the last. Then came another.’ – Ian Fleming
107. ‘From the first, Istanbul had given him the impression of a town where, with the night, horror creeps out of the stones. It seemed to him a town the centuries had so drenched in blood and violence that, when daylight went out, the ghosts of its dead were its only population.’ ― Ian Fleming
108. ‘Justinian and Theodora’s time in power was also marked by the number of refugees they welcomed into Constantinople. Struggling, homeless, stateless travellers came from East and West fleeing from the Persian and ‘barbarian’ troubles. Many arrived displaced from the Danubian and Gothic provinces by Huns and Goths; victims of Vandal atrocities had had their tongues cut out. The imperial pair built a hospice for refugees. The city was starting to build her reputation, which she still holds today, as a place of refuge.’ ― Bettany Hughes
109. ‘Istanbul was something else entirely – a neutral capital that became a magnet for espionage and a desperate escape valve for refugees, a real-life Casablanca.’ – Joseph Kanon
Istanbul Hashtags
How about using some of these popular Istanbul hashtags to get more engagement on your Instagram pictures!
110. #istanbul
111. #visitistanbul
112. #istanbullife
113. #istanbulturkey
114. #istanbullove
115. #ig_istanbul
116. #istanbulcity
117. #instaistanbul
118. #istanbulmoments
119. #igersistanbul
120. #istanbullovers
121. #istanbultrip
122. #istanbulpage
Istanbul Quotes & Captions & Orhan Pamuk Quotes Summary
I hope you enjoyed these Istanbul Instagram captions and quotes and got lots of inspiration and ideas and able to find the perfect one to go with your travel photos!
Whether it’s a famous quote, a funny pun or short caption, I hope you’ll find one perfect for your Instagram photo of Istanbul!
Do you know any other famous quotes or captions about Istanbul? Feel free to leave any in the comments below if so!
Looking for Instagram captions for other global destinations? Check out these articles:
232 Los Angeles Captions & Quotes
183 Spain Captions & Quotes!
200 Dubai Quotes & Captions
130 Bali Quotes & Captions
130 Amsterdam Quotes For Instagram
155 Las Vegas Captions & Quotes
150 Chicago Captions for Instagram!
121 Hawaii Instagram Captions
59 Best Abu Dhabi Quotes
Like this post on Istanbul Quotes and Captions & Orhan Pamuk Quotes? Pin it for later to share with your friends!