Istanbul Skyscrapers: 6 Towers Worth Knowing

People come to Istanbul for the obvious reasons: Hagia Sophia, the markets, the ferries, the food. But there is a second skyline here that most visitors never plan for, and it is genuinely worth a look. North of the old city, where the business districts of Maslak, Levent, Şişli and Ataşehir push up out of the hills, Istanbul has grown a wall of glass towers that hold their own against any in Europe. If you like big buildings, or you just want a different photo than everyone else’s, this is the part of the city to go find.

A quick reality check before we start. Most of these are residences and offices, so you cannot just wander into the lobby and take an elevator to the top. Only one on this list, Istanbul Sapphire, has a proper public observation deck. The rest you admire from the outside, from a rooftop bar, or from the water. I have flagged which is which so you do not show up expecting a view and get turned away by security. If a skyline panorama is the whole point of your trip, also read my piece on the best viewpoints in Istanbul, because some of the best ones are free.

Here are six of the tallest Istanbul skyscrapers, with what they actually are and how to see them.

Skyland Istanbul: the twin towers you can stay in

Skyland Istanbul sits in the Seyrantepe part of the Sarıyer district, and it is the one most people picture when they think of the new skyline. It is a mixed complex of three towers: two near-identical giants of about 284 meters with 64 to 65 floors each, plus a shorter 155-meter hotel tower. When it finished in 2019 it instantly became one of the tallest things in the city, and from a distance the twins read almost like a single sculpted block.

The good news for travelers is that you do not have to live here to get inside. There is a Movenpick hotel built into the complex, so if you want to wake up inside one of Istanbul’s tallest buildings, you can book a room and do exactly that. The lower floors hold offices and some shops. The twins are easiest to spot from the highway coming in from the airport, and they are a useful landmark when you are getting your bearings on the European side.

Metropol Istanbul: the tallest on the Asian side

Cross over to the Asian side and the big one is Metropol Istanbul, in the Ataşehir financial district. Its main tower reaches about 280 meters at the roof and roughly 300 meters once you count the twin spires on top, which for a while made it the tallest building in the whole country. It is a properly versatile project: residences, offices, a long shopping street and a mall that opened in 2019.

What makes Metropol worth a detour rather than just a glance is DasDas, the performing arts center tucked into the complex. It runs a busy program of theatre, stand-up and concerts, and it has become one of the more talked-about cultural spaces on the Anatolian side. If you are spending time around Kadıköy and the Asian side anyway, checking what is on at DasDas is an easy way to turn a skyscraper into an actual evening out. The mall underneath is a fine place to escape the heat and do some shopping if you have time to fill.

Istanbul Sapphire: the one you can actually go up

If you only have time for one tower on this list, make it Istanbul Sapphire, because it is the only one that genuinely opens its top to visitors. It stands at 261 meters in the Çeliktepe area near 4.Levent, technically in the Kağıthane district, and for years it was the tallest building in the city. The complex holds residences, offices and a small mall, but the reason to come is the observation deck on the 54th floor, about 236 meters up.

From up there you get a 360-degree sweep over both continents on a clear day, which is hard to beat. They also run a 4D Skyride, a short helicopter-simulation ride with moving seats and effects that “flies” you over the city. It is a bit of fun more than a serious attraction, but kids tend to love it. At the time of writing, an observation-deck ticket runs somewhere around 450 to 500 lira, very roughly 14 to 15 dollars, with packages that add the Skyride costing more. Prices and opening hours shift, so check before you trek out there. My honest advice: go late afternoon so you catch the city in daylight and then watch it light up. For more high-up options, my guide to the best Istanbul viewpoints and the post on Çamlıca Tower cover the other places you can climb.

Nurol Life: luxury living in Sarıyer

Nurol Life is back over in Seyrantepe, Sarıyer, close to the Türk Telekom Stadium where Galatasaray play. It is a single residential tower of around 220 meters and roughly 50 floors, finished in 2018. This one is firmly a place to live rather than visit, so do not plan a trip around it, but it earns its spot on any list of the tallest Istanbul skyscrapers.

The selling point is the lifestyle packed inside: concierge service, a spa and sauna, a fitness center, a swimming pool, the full list of things a high-end resident expects. It is central, it is close to the metro, and from the upper floors the views run across the European side. If you are curious about what it actually costs to live behind glass like this, I dug into the numbers in my guide to living in Istanbul as an expat, which is a useful reality check before you fall in love with the brochure.

Spine Tower: the sleek one in Maslak

Spine Tower stands at 202 meters in Maslak, the business heart of the European side, and it is the design lover’s pick here. It was completed back in 2013, which makes it one of the older buildings on this list, but the architecture has aged well. With its curved, ribbed profile it is one of the more recognizable shapes in the Maslak cluster, and it slots neatly into the wider list of the tallest buildings in Istanbul.

So many of the city’s high-rises landed in this corner for a simple reason: Maslak, along with Levent right next door, is where Istanbul’s money works. Banks, head offices and law firms wanted the prestige address, and the towers followed. Spine is mainly offices and retail, so again this is one to admire from the street rather than enter. If towers and old fortresses are your thing, my round-up of the historic towers of Istanbul makes a nice counterpoint to all this glass.

Anthill Residence: twin towers over Bomonti

Last on the list is Anthill Residence, in the Bomonti neighborhood of the Şişli district. It is a twin-tower project of about 210 meters with roughly 54 floors and a famous headline figure of 804 residences, which is a small vertical town in itself. Anthill was one of the first twin-tower residential schemes in the city, and it sits right in the middle of how fast Bomonti has changed from a quiet old quarter into one of the most fashionable parts of Istanbul.

The reason people fight over the higher apartments is the view. From the upper floors you can see the Marmara Sea, then the Princes’ Islands and the Golden Horn as you climb, and near the top you get the full panorama across the city. Bomonti itself is worth wandering even if you never go up: it is full of craft-beer bars, art spaces and the old Bomonti beer factory turned cultural hub. I wrote a whole love letter to the area in my guide to Bomonti, one of Istanbul’s coolest neighborhoods.

So which Istanbul skyscraper should you actually visit?

If you want to go up, the answer is simple: Istanbul Sapphire is the only one of these six with a public deck, so that is your tower. For everything else you are admiring the silhouette from outside, and honestly that is often the better experience. The most flattering way to see the whole modern skyline is not from any single building at all but from the water, on a Bosphorus cruise at sunset, when the towers of Levent and Maslak catch the last light behind the older domes and minarets.

One closing tip. These buildings are spread across both continents, so do not try to tick off all six in one rushed afternoon. Pick a side, pair the towers with the neighborhood around them (Sapphire with Levent, Metropol with Kadıköy and the Asian side, Anthill with Bomonti), and let the skyscrapers be the excuse to explore a part of modern Istanbul that most visitors skip entirely.

Note: The images on this post are stock photos and they are not from the actual places.