Distance from Cape Town to Istanbul
Cape Town (South Africa) and Istanbul (Türkiye) are 8,402 km apart — that's 5,221 miles or 4,537 nautical miles, measured along the great circle (the shortest path over the Earth's surface).
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 8,402 km · 5,221 mi · 4,537 nmi
- Initial bearing Cape Town → Istanbul
- 8° (N)
- Initial bearing Istanbul → Cape Town
- 189° (S)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 10 h 33 min
- Time zones
- Cape Town UTC+02:00 · Istanbul UTC+03:00 (+1 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 146 min — the sun rises later in Cape Town
Flight time is a cruise-speed approximation (no routing/wind); driving distance depends on roads and is typically 20–40% longer than great-circle.
The two cities
- Cape Town
- -33.9258, 18.4232
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 05:34 UTC / 16:12 UTC
- Istanbul
- 41.0138, 28.9497
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 03:07 UTC / 17:14 UTC
Open in the distance calculator Find the halfway point
Distances here are straight-line (great-circle). Road routes typically run 1.2–1.4× longer — here's why, with the visual.