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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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Şehzade Mehmet Camii
Süleyman the Magnificent built this mosque between 1543 and 1548 as a memorial to his son, Mehmet, who died of smallpox in 1543 at the age of 22. It was the first important mosque to be designed by Mimar Sinan. Although not one of his best works, it has two beautiful minarets and attractive exterior decoration.
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Şemsi Paşa Camii
This charming mosque right on the waterfront was designed by Sinan and built in 1580 for grand vizier Şemsi Paşa. It is modest in size and decoration - reflecting the fact that its benefactor only occupied the position of grand vizier for a couple of months under Süleyman the Magnificent. Its medrese has been stylishly converted into a library.
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Sirkeci Railway Station
The romance of the Orient Express and other locomotives of the era was reflected in the design for this train station, built as the terminus of European routes in 1881. Designed by a German architect, it is an excellent example of Islamic Eclecticism, an architectural movement introduced into İstanbul by European architects at the end of the 19th century.
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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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Sokollu Mehmet Paşa Camii
Sinan designed this mosque in 1571, at the height of his architectural career. Though named after the grand vizier of the time, it was really sponsored by his wife Esmahan, daughter of Sultan Selim II. Besides its architectural harmony, typical of Sinan's greatest works, the mosque is unusual because the medrese is not a separate building but actually part of the mosque structure, built around the forecourt.
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Süleymaniye Camii
The Süleymaniye crowns one of the seven hills, and dominates the Golden Horn, providing a landmark for the entire city. It was commissioned by the greatest, richest and most powerful of Ottoman sultans, Süleyman I (r 1520-66), known as 'The Magnificent', and was the fourth imperial mosque built in İstanbul, following the Fatih, Beyazıt and Selim I complexes.
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Sultan Selim Camii
By all accounts the sultan to whom this mosque was dedicated (Süleyman the Magnificent's father, Selim I, known as 'the Grim') was a nasty piece of work. He is famous for having his father poisoned and for killing two of his brothers, six of his nephews and three of his own sons. Odd, then, that his mosque is one of the most loved in the city.
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Taksim Square
The symbolic heart of modern İstanbul, this busy square is named after the stone reservoir on its western side, once part of the city's old water-conduit system. The main water line from the Belgrade Forest, north of the city, was laid to this point in 1732 by Sultan Mahmut I (r 1730-54). Branch lines then led from the taksim to other parts of the city.
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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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Tekfur Sarayi
The Byzantine palaces that once crowded Sultanahmet Square are all gone, so is the great Palace of Blachernae, which was also in this neighbourhood. Only the Tekfur Sarayı remains. Though the building is only a shell these days, it is remarkably preserved considering its great age.
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Topkapi Harem
These were the imperial family quarters, and every detail of Harem life was governed by tradition, obligation and ceremony. The word harem literally means 'private'.
Every traditional Muslim household had two distinct parts: the selamlık (greeting room) where the master greeted friends, business associates and tradespeople; and the harem (private apartments), reserved for himself and his family.
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Topkapi Palace
Home to Selim the Sot, who drowned in the bath after drinking too much champagne; İbrahim the Mad, who lost his reason after being locked up for four years in the infamous palace kafes (cages); and Roxelana, beautiful and malevolent consort of Süleyman the Magnificent, Topkapı would have to be the subject of more colourful stories than most of the world's museums put together. No wonder it's been the subject of an award-winning feature film, an opera (Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio ) and a blockbuster social history (John Freely's wonderful Inside the Seraglio ). Make sure you dedicate at least half a day to exploring, because tourist attractions rarely come any better than this.
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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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Yedikule Hisari Müzesi
One of the city's major landmarks, it has a history as substantial as its massive structure. In the late 4th century Theodosius I built a triumphal arch here. When the next Theodosius (r 408-50) built his great land walls, he incorporated the arch in the structure.Four of the fortress' seven towers were built as part of Theodosius II's walls; the other three, which are inside the walls, were added by Mehmet the Conqueror.
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Yeni Camii
Only in İstanbul would a 400-year-old mosque be called 'New'. The Yeni Camii was begun in 1597, commissioned by Valide Sultan Safiye, mother of Sultan Mehmet III (r 1595-1603). The site was earlier occupied by a community of Karaite Jews, radical dissenters from Orthodox Judaism. When the valide sultan decided to build her grand mosque here, the Karaites were moved to Hasköy, a district further up the Golden Horn.
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Yeni Valide Camii
Unusual because of the striking 'birdcage' tomb in its overgrown garden, the Yeni Valide Camii was built by Sultan Ahmet III between 1708 and 1710 for his mother, Gülnuş Emetullah. After being captured as a child on Crete and brought to Topkapı, Gülnuş became the favourite concubine of Mehmet IV, and bore him two sons who would become sultan: Mustafa II and his younger brother, Ahmet.
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Yildiz Parki
Sultan Abdül Hamit II (r 1876-1909) didn't allow himself to be upstaged by his predecessors. He built his own fancy palace by adding considerably to the structures built by earlier sultans in Yıldız Parkı, continuing the Ottoman tradition of palace pavilions that had been employed so wonderfully at Topkapı. It was to be the last sultan's palace built in İstanbul.
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Zeyrek Camii
Zeyrek Camii was originally part of an important Byzantine sanctuary comprising two churches, a chapel and a monastery. The monastery is long gone and the northernmost church is derelict, but the southern church still has some features intact, including a magnificent marble floor. Empress Eirene had the church built before her death in AD 1124 (she features in a mosaic at Aya Sofya with Emperor John II Comnenus).
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