Is Istanbul Famous for Cats? The Story Behind the City's Street Cats

Spend half a day walking around Istanbul and you will notice something before you notice anything else. There are cats everywhere. On café chairs, on car bonnets, curled up on shop counters, sprawled across the warm steps of a mosque courtyard. So you start wondering: is Istanbul famous for cats?

Yes, very much so. Cats are one of the things the city is genuinely known for, right alongside the Bosphorus, the mosques and the food. They are not a quirk you have to go looking for. They are part of the texture of the place, and millions of people who have never set foot in Turkey know Istanbul as “the cat city” thanks to a documentary, a few viral cats, and a culture of feeding strays that goes back centuries.

This post walks through the whole thing: how many cats there are, why they are here, whether they are treated well, whether you can pet them, and how you can help if you want to.

Is Istanbul Famous for Cats? Are There Lots of Cats in Istanbul?

Short answer: yes, and there are a lot of them. Estimates vary wildly because nobody has ever properly counted, but figures range from around 125,000 to well over a million across the wider metropolitan area. The often-quoted number you will see attached to the documentary Kedi is 125,000, and that already feels low once you have spent a few days here.

What makes Istanbul different is not just the count. It is the fact that these cats are not hiding. They live out in the open, alongside people, and most locals treat them as semi-public pets that happen to belong to the whole street. Whether you are eating at a meyhane or wandering the colorful back streets of Istanbul, a cat will eventually wander over to inspect you. That openness is exactly why the city earned its reputation.

Which City Is Most Famous for Its Cats?

Istanbul is the one most people name first, and the documentary Kedi (2016) cemented that. It followed seven street cats around neighborhoods like Cihangir and turned them into something close to film stars. The movie became a small global hit and is the single biggest reason a tourist in, say, Canada might already associate Istanbul with cats before booking a flight.

Istanbul is not alone, though. Other Turkish cities have plenty of street cats too, Izmir and Ankara among them, and the same easygoing relationship with strays exists across much of the country. Outside Turkey, places like Houtong in Taiwan, Kuching in Malaysia (the name literally means “cat”) and the cat islands of Japan all have their own following. India has an enormous stray population measured in the tens of millions, and big stray populations exist in countries from Brazil to the United States. But for the specific combination of huge numbers, central city living and genuine public affection, Istanbul stands more or less on its own.

Why Is Istanbul Famous for Cats?

There are a few overlapping reasons, and they stack on top of each other.

First, history. Cats most likely arrived in numbers on the trading and naval ships that came through this port for centuries, kept aboard to control rats and mice. In a dense wooden city full of granaries, markets and ships, a good mouser was worth its weight in gold. Written accounts from Ottoman-era Constantinople even describe people leaving out food and building small shelters for street cats hundreds of years ago, so this is not a recent fashion.

Second, culture and faith. Cats are regarded as clean animals in Islam, and there are well-loved stories of the Prophet Muhammad’s fondness for them. That respect filtered into daily habits, which is why you will still see bowls of water and dry food tucked into doorways and at the base of walls, put out by ordinary residents and shopkeepers.

Third, the cats themselves became celebrities. Two in particular: Tombili and Gli. We will get to them. Add it all up and you get a city where loving cats is simply normal, the way it is normal elsewhere to wave at a neighbor’s dog.

Also worth a read: Is 7 days in Istanbul too much?

Who Were Tombili and Gli, the Famous Cats of Istanbul?

If you only learn two cat names before visiting, make them these.

Tombili was a chubby, supremely relaxed cat from the Ziverbey area of Kadıköy on the Asian side. A 2016 photo of her leaning back against a step with one paw out, looking like a man who has just finished an enormous lunch, went viral worldwide. When she died later that year, locals were genuinely upset, and a campaign pushed the Kadıköy Municipality to honor her. A bronze statue in her exact lounging pose was unveiled on World Animal Day in October 2016. It was even stolen at one point and then recovered, and it still sits on the same street today. If you visit the Kadıköy and Asian side of Istanbul, it makes a fun little pilgrimage.

Gli was the famous resident cat of Hagia Sophia, a green-eyed tabby born inside the building around 2004. She became internationally known after Barack Obama was photographed petting her during his 2009 visit, and she built up tens of thousands of Instagram followers. Gli passed away in late 2020 at around 16, but she remains the unofficial mascot of the monument. These two cats, more than any tourism campaign, are why the city’s feline reputation travels.

Why Do the Locals Love the Cats So Much?

Partly it is just that cats are easy to love anywhere. They are independent, a bit aloof, funny, and they do not demand much. But in Istanbul there is an extra layer: the city has lived with these cats for so long that caring for them feels less like charity and more like a shared civic habit. A butcher saves scraps. A bookshop keeps a resident cat that customers come back to greet. A grandmother on a fourth-floor balcony has been feeding the same three cats for a decade.

This is also wrapped up in the broader question of what Istanbul is best known for. Ask ten people and you will hear ten answers, but cats reliably make the list now, because they say something about how the city actually feels to be in: a bit chaotic, a bit soft-hearted, and never quite as buttoned-up as it looks.

Are the Stray Cats in Istanbul Treated Well? Are They Safe?

Here is the honest answer, because the romantic version online can be misleading: it is mixed.

Many cats in Istanbul genuinely do live well. They are fed, they have favorite spots, vets sometimes treat injured strays for free or cheaply, and whole neighborhoods keep an eye on “their” cats. You will see well-fed, confident, content animals all over the touristy districts.

But a street is still a street. Cats here face the same hard realities strays face anywhere: winter cold, hunger, traffic, illness, and the occasional cruel person. Not every cat is plump and happy. Some are clearly struggling, especially kittens and the old or sick. So the truth sits between two extremes. These are not pampered house pets, and they are not abandoned and ignored. They are community animals living a semi-wild life with a lot of help and some real risk.

It is also worth knowing the policy backdrop. In August 2024, Turkey passed a major animal law (No. 7527) that mostly targets the country’s large stray dog population and pushes municipalities to shelter them, and through 2025 some city authorities, including in Istanbul, began restricting unregulated street feeding in certain spots. The cat situation has been less directly affected, but it is a live and sometimes heated public debate, so what you see on the ground can shift over time.

Also worth a read: What is the best time to visit Istanbul?

Can You Pet the Cats in Istanbul?

You can, and most of these cats are remarkably used to people, but use a bit of sense.

Many street cats here will walk straight up to you, rub your ankles and flop over for attention. Plenty are perfectly safe to pet, and it is one of the small joys of the city. That said, they are still stray animals with an unknown medical history. Let the cat come to you rather than grabbing it, avoid sticking your hand near a cat that is eating or clearly nervous, and wash your hands afterward, especially before food. If you do get scratched or bitten and the skin breaks, take it seriously: clean it and see a doctor about rabies precautions, the same as you would anywhere.

If you want guaranteed, relaxed cat time without the unknowns, head to a café with resident cats. The bohemian streets of Cihangir are full of them, and historic Fener and Balat have several vintage cafés where cats roam between the customers. Karaköy is another reliable bet for a chin-scratch over coffee.

Why Are Cats Treated So Well in Turkey?

A lot of it comes back to those three threads again: the Ottoman-era habit of feeding street cats, the respect for cats in Islamic tradition, and a generally social, communal street culture where leaving out a bowl of food is just what decent people do.

There is also a practical history. For centuries cats earned their keep by keeping rats and mice out of homes, shops and ships, which built a working partnership long before anyone was posting cat photos online. That old usefulness, plus genuine affection, plus faith, is why a stray cat in Turkey is rarely treated as a pest and is far more often treated as a guest. It is part of the wider character of Istanbul and the people who live here.

How Can You Help the Cats in Istanbul? Can You Bring One Home?

If you want to do something useful while you are here, the simplest things matter most. Carry a small pouch of cat food and leave a little for the skinnier ones. Top up an empty water bowl in summer heat. In winter, those styrofoam boxes you see tucked under stairwells are makeshift shelters, so do not move or “tidy” them away. Supporting a local animal charity or a vet that treats strays goes further than feeding one cat.

And yes, you can adopt. Plenty of travelers fall hard for a particular cat and end up taking it home. It is doable but it is paperwork, not a whim: you will need a vet check, vaccinations (rabies above all), microchipping, the right health certificate and, for most destinations, an import permit, all arranged before you fly. Rules differ by country and airline, so start early. If you are planning a longer or multi-stop trip and wondering how it fits, our notes on how many days you really need in Istanbul and the classic Istanbul famous places can help you build the rest of the itinerary around your new travel companion.

Want more feline trivia? See 10 interesting facts about the cats of Istanbul.

Is Istanbul Famous for Cats? Final Words

So, is Istanbul famous for cats? Absolutely, and deservedly. Between the sheer numbers, the centuries of history, the documentary that introduced the city’s cats to the world, and characters like Tombili and Gli, the reputation is earned rather than invented.

Just keep the real picture in mind alongside the cute one. These cats are loved, but they are still living on the street, and the kindest thing you can do as a visitor is treat them gently, help where you can, and remember that an animal living out in the open, anywhere in the world, is always worth a bit of care.