Dolmabahçe Palace replaced Topkapı as the sultan's principal residence in 1856, and its scale and ambition were clearly designed to make European monarchs feel at home — or outclassed. The building stretches 600 metres along the Bosphorus waterfront, with 285 rooms and 46 reception halls, decorated in a European Baroque, Neoclassical, and Rococo style that feels entirely at odds with the Ottoman past yet somehow also entirely Ottoman.
Visits are by guided tour only (separate tours for the Selamlık and Harem sections) and the tours move at speed, which is frustrating given the density of things to see. Book in advance in summer. The Bosphorus facade, seen from the water, is the most dramatic view. The gardens are pleasant and free to enter separately.