the construction of the bedesten ended in the winter of 1460/61, and the building was endowed to the "waqf" of the aya sofya mosque. analysis of the brickwork shows that most of the structure originates from the second half of the 15th century, although a byzantine relief representing a comnenian eagle, still enclosed on the top of the east gate () of the bedesten has been used by several scholars as proof that the edifice was a byzantine structure.