Though it certainly looks impressive from the outside, and though the details in ornamentation - some lamps for instance - certainly are nice, the over-all impression of this well-known shopping mall was, that it was from an earlier age than the Cevahir mall, it was slighly less exuberant, and I had the sense that the designers had been economizing on space. Here are some shots. It indeed has been around for a while longer, the period they were winning awards started in 1995, 1996 (a Wikipedia article states: In 1995, Akmerkez was chosen as the best shopping center in Europe by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). In the competition, organized by this same council, Akmerkez was recognized as the best shopping center in the world in 1996. It also received the highest accolade given by the ICSC, the "International Design and Development Award". It is the only shopping center in the world to receive both of these awards).