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Aqueduct Of Valens
Rising majestically over the traffic on busy Atatürk Bulvarı, this limestone structure is one of the city's most distinctive landmarks. Visitors often gasp in amazement on seeing it for the first time (amazement often turns into consternation when they notice excited fans from the nearby Vefa football stadium doing perilous victory dances waving their team's colours from its dizzy heights).
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Binbirdirek Cistern
Constantine built Binbirdirek in AD 330. During Ottoman times it was converted into a khan for silk manufacturers. Closed for decades, it was restored a few years ago and functions as a café and venue for exhibitions and concerts. Not as impressive as the Basilica Cistern (largely because it has been emptied of its water reserves and has a false floor), the only time this place is really worth a visit is when it hosts the concerts.
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Bosphorus Night Cruise
One of the most enjoyable, and certainly most romantic, night-time activities in İstanbul is to take a Bosphorus ferry. Enjoy the view back to the Old City, the twinkling lights, the fishing boats bobbing on the waves and the powerful searchlights of the ferries sweeping the sea lanes.
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Caferağa Medresesi
This lovely little building, which is tucked away in the shadows of Aya Sofya, was designed by Sinan on the orders of Cafer Ağa, Süleyman the Magnificent's chief black eunuch. Built in 1560 as a school for Islamic and secular education, today it is home to the Turkish Cultural Services Foundation, which runs workshops in traditional Ottoman arts such as calligraphy, ebru (traditional Turkish marbling) and miniature painting.
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Çiçek Pasaji
Back in the days when the Orient Express was rolling into Old Stamboul and promenading down İstiklal Caddesi was the fashionable thing to do (how little things change…), the Cité de Pera building was the most glamorous address in town. Built in 1876 and decorated in Second Empire style, it housed a shopping arcade as well as apartments.
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Kuleli Military School
Past the small village of Çengelköy on the Asian side is the imposing Kuleli Military School, built in 1860 and immortalised in Irfan Orga's wonderful memoir, Portrait of a Turkish Family.
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Sarıyer
The residents of Sarıyer, the next village up from Büyükdere on the European shore, have occupied themselves for most of their history by fishing. This is still a pastime and the main livelihood here, and Sarıyer is justly noted for its good fish restaurants. It's a busy place.
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Soğukçeşme Sokak
Soğukçeşme Sokak, or Street of the Cold Fountain, runs between the Topkapı Palace walls and Aya Sofya. In the 1980s, the Turkish Touring & Automobile Association (Turing) acquired a row of buildings on the street and decided to demolish most of them to build nine re-creations of the prim Ottoman-style houses that had occupied the site in the previous two centuries.
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Tarabya
Originally called Therapia for its healthy climate, the little cove of Tarabya on the European shore has been a favourite summer watering place for İstanbul's well-to-do for centuries, though contemporary developments such as the horrendous multi-storey Grand Hotel Tarabya right on the promontory have poisoned some of its charm. For an account of Therapia in its heyday, read Harold Nicolson's 1921 novel Sweet Waters.
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Turkbalon
To see İstanbul from the air, head south along the waterfront until you come to the tethered Turkbalon, which will carry you 200m into the air to give you a 360-degree panorama of the city. Weather permitting, of course. The balloon goes up every 15 minutes and stays in the air for 10 to 15 minutes.
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