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Istanbul Round Up

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What photo takes you right back to Istanbul?

We visited so many historic mosques in Istanbul and Blue Mosque was one of our favourites.

In the courtyard of the Blue Mosque

Summarise Istanbul in three words.

  • Strolling – Our guidebook of choice is usually the Lonely Planet but Strolling Through Istanbul was perfect for us – we love walking tours, it covered the main sights in much more detail than the LP and was extensive enough that we could use it to get off the beaten track as well. On the downside it wasn’t at all helpful with information on how to get to the start of the walks and the maps could have been clearer.
  • Mosques – It feels like there’s a mosque around every corner in Istanbul and their domes and minarets (towers) are easily spotted landmarks. When we thought about it though, the density of churches in London, Paris, Venice or York is probably just as high.
  • Steep – There are lots of hills in Istanbul and streets are often cobbled which makes the going even harder. Most of the places we stayed were accessed only by spiral staircases (no lifts).

You really know you’re in Istanbul when…

…you can spend the morning in Europe and the afternoon in Asia without even leaving the city.

What one item should you definitely pack when going to Istanbul?

Ear plugs. With so many mosques in the city you’re bound to be sleeping within range of one and the first call to prayer is at dawn, which was about 4.40am after the clocks went back. We quite liked the sound of it but maybe not so good if you’re a light sleeper.

A family trip to the Princes’ Islands, Istanbul

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The big downside of being away from home for so long is that we miss our family and friends. Although Skype’s great it’s just not the same as spending time together, especially with our nephews and niece. We’ve been fortunate to have been visited before by Julie’s Mum and Dad (in China) and by our friend Jo (in Vietnam and Uzbekistan), and we were excited to line up another visit in Istanbul, this time from Julie’s sister Steph, brother-in-law Tom and our nephew Olly who was just 12 weeks old when we left on this trip.

Breakfast in the gardenAndrew, Tom, Steph and Olly enjoying breakfast in the garden of our rented apartment on their first morning in Istanbul

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t very cooperative for much of their 10 day visit with clouds or even outright rain. It seemed that autumn had properly arrived in Istanbul. Still we were able to get out for a few walks, had a go on the slides in the many playparks and chased pigeons wherever we could.

PlayparksLittle and big kids in some of Istanbul’s playparks

Family is very important in Turkey and, in our experience, Turkish people love children (especially super cute and smiley blond haired ones). In every cafe, restaurant or fast food place that we entered, the staff made an effort to find a space for the pushchair, made a fuss of Olly and gave him enough free chips, biscuits and sweets that the rest of us started feeling a bit jealous.

Feeding the pigeonsOlly making friends while feeding the pigeons in Hippodrome Square

The weather at last brightened up for our final couple of days together and on the last day we took the ferry from Kabataş to the Princes’ Islands. This archipelago of nine islands lies approximately 20km southeast of the mainland in the Sea of Marmara, but is administratively included in the City of Istanbul. Only six of the islands are inhabited but the ferries, of which there are several each day, only stop at the largest four.

Princes' IslandBurgazada, the second ferry stop, seen from the pier

We got off at the final island, Büyükada, which is also the largest and most populous of the group. In summer the population swells as it is a popular holiday destination as well as an easy to reach place for day-trippers. It looks as if the city’s rich might be some of those who retreat there as we saw lots of very large and beautifully kept villas.

Wooden mansion on BuyukadaMany of the houses on Büyükada are wooden and very large though not all are in such good condition as this beautiful villa

On all of the islands, the only motorised traffic allowed are service vehicles (police, rubbish collection, etc.) so the only ways to get around are on foot, by bicycle or by horse drawn carriage, called fayton. We were ready to stretch our legs after 90 minutes on the ferry and soon noticed that several of the horses pulling faytons looked to be poorly kept so decided to stick to moving under our own steam.

Buyukada horse and carriageFaytons carrying day-trippers around Büyükada

We set off towards the Monastery of St George and viewpoint on top of the southernmost of the island’s two hills. It was very pleasant walking the streets with no traffic noise, eyeing up the grand villas and waving at all the stray cats (hello miaow!). After we’d left the houses behind we noticed areas of picnic tables under the pine trees. They looked like a perfect place for us to eat the sandwiches that we had brought and we settled ourselves down. We were just about to tuck in when a man approached demanding 3TL per person (just under £1) to sit there. That seemed a bit steep, no wonder all the other tables were empty, so we moved on and ate as we wandered.

Picnic lunchShortly before we were moved on from our picnic table (Olly had already devoured his sandwich and is asleep in his pushchair behind the table)

Having eaten our lunch and checked the distances on the map we realised that we wouldn’t have time to walk up to the monastery and make it back in time for the 3pm ferry so we took the other fork in the road and walked in a loop around to the village.

Buyukada catsThere are tons of stray cats in Istanbul and Büyükada was no exception. The locals feed them and for the most part they are in very good condition

On the ferry back we were thrilled to see a school of dolphins leaping across the wake of the boat. A fabulous end to our stay in this beautiful city.

Leaving the Princes' IslandsFarewell to the Princes’ Islands and to Istanbul

Along the Land Walls to the Chora Church

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Having explored a section of ancient Istanbul’s sea walls we thought it would be interesting to take a look at the city’s land defences. Running for approximately 6.5km from the Sea of Marmara to the Golden Horn, the Byzantine land walls complete the defences which made Constantinople, as it then was, such a secure place, invulnerable to invasion for centuries. They were initially built in AD413 but an intense earthquake in 447 caused considerable damage and, as Atilla the Hun was advancing on the city, the repairs needed to be speedy. Constantine, the Prefect at that time, threw all of the city’s resources at the task and managed to complete the job in just two months with improvements in the form of an outer wall and moat. Impressive indeed and successful in holding back Atilla.

The Marble TowerThe Marble Tower was the point where the sea walls joined the land walls

We started out from the Sea of Marmara coast at the Marble Tower, so called because its lower half is faced in marble. This structure was the joining point between the sea and land walls although nowadays it is disconnected from both by a busy road. We had a scramble behind the tower and poked about in the remains of its rooms, now being used by some of the city’s homeless for shelter.

Istanbul's Land WallsThe land walls form an imposing landmark in this part of the city

After about 400m walk alongside the wall we came to Yedikule, literally ‘Seven Towers’, a castle within, and a part of, the walls. After the Conquest, the Ottomans built three additional towers and an enclosing wall inside one of the gates of the land wall. The castle was not used for military purposes but partly as a prison and partly as storage for the State Treasury. The tumbledown minaret of a small mosque still stands in the centre of the courtyard.

Inside Yedikule fortressThe interior of Yedikule castle seen from its walls

We were able to climb inside some of Yedikule’s towers as well as around its wall, admiring the sturdy construction and getting good views out to the sea and over the city. We even spotted some of the city’s landmark buildings – Haghia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Süleymaniye Mosque.

Exploring one of the towers of the Yedikule fortressExploring the Tower of Ambassadors in Yedikule, once used as a prison for foreign envoys

View down the land walls to Sea of MarmaraLooking from the top of the walls of Yedikule along the land walls to the Sea of Marmara. The Marble Tower can be seen beside the sea in the centre left of the photo.

Moving on we found that although some sections of the wall have been restored so that you can walk along them, much of it is crumbling and even if it is possible to walk along the top there are not good ways to get up and down so for the most part we were following small streets as close to the wall as we could get.

Unrestored section of land wallsUnrestored tower in the land walls

Vegetable gardens between the inner and outer wallAlong the outside of a lot of the wall we saw allotments and vegetable gardens

Originally and for centuries afterward there were just ten gates in the whole length of the wall and only five of those crossed the moat allowing access to the outside world. However, in the last hundred or so years sections of the wall have been knocked down to allow the passage of the railway line and several large highways. Even so, the old gates are still in use and given their width (only a little larger than one van or minibus) they must cause bottlenecks of traffic between what is now the city without the walls and the old town.

Gate in land wallsThe narrow Mevlevihane Gate

Towards the Golden Horn end of the walls is Tekfur Saray, originally a Byzantine palace but since the end of the 14th century it has had rather a chequered history serving time as a brothel, a pottery and a menagerie for larger kinds of exotic animals amongst other things all the while somehow maintaing its original character. Unfortunately it isn’t open to the public at the moment although it looks like it’s under restoration so perhaps soon it will be. By the time we reached this point of the walk it was late in the afternoon. Walking the streets through the nearby neighbourhood on the descent to the Golden Horn we were amused to see housewives doing their shopping by lowering down baskets from their apartment windows to the stallholders below, presumably with a list and payment inside.

Tekfur SarayThe impressive Tekfur Saray near the Golden Horn end of the land walls

Chora Church Museum

Christ Pantocrater mosaicThe church was dedicated to Christ Pantocrater (the Almighty) shown in this mosaic over the door to the inner narthex

Close to the Golden Horn end of the land walls is the former Church of St Saviour in Chora, known in Turkish as Kariye Muzesi. Like many of the Byzantine churches that we’ve visited in Istanbul, this one was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman Conquest. Fortunately its magnificent mosaics and frescoes were preserved, even if unconsciously, by being covered in plaster and in the 1950s they were restored and the building opened as a museum. Further restoration has begun recently and the nave of the church was closed off for this work during our visit.

Chora Church inner narthexAlthough the church is quite small, the ceilings are absolutely covered in shimmering mosics

A church or monastery has stood on this spot since before the land walls were built. It underwent several remodellings from the 11th century onwards culminating in the rebuilding and redecoration which gave the church its current form in the early 14th century. The man responsible for this was Theodore Metochites, a high ranking official in the court.

Theodore Metochites presenting his church to ChristMosaic portrait of Theodore Metochites presenting the church as a gift to Christ

The mosaics form a series of groups including the life of the Virgin Mary, the life of Christ and Christ’s ministry. The Strolling Through Istanbul book highlighted them for us in order which greatly enhanced the experience as we were able to follow the stories being told.

The Ancestry of Christ dome mosaicDome mosaic showing the ancestry of Christ

MosaicMosaic from the life of Christ showing Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem to be taxed

Temptation of Christ mosaicMosaic of Christ’s temptation in one of the domes of the outer narthex

In the south-east corner of the church is the Paracclesion, a type of side chapel. Here, rather than mosaics, the walls and ceiling are covered with frescoes showing various aspects of the passing over from life to death, along with portraits of Orthodox saints. Remarkably it is thought that the same artist responsible for the mosaics also did the frescoes. While undoubtedly masterly these were for us much less spectacular than the wonderful gilded mosaics.

Paraclession frescoesFrescoes in the Paracclesion

Resurrection frescoThe centrepiece of the frescoes is in the semidome over the apse, called the Anastasis in Greek which translates as Resurrection; it shows Christ having broken down the gates of Hell pulling Adam and Eve out of their tombs while various other Biblical figures look on

Fresco domeThe dome of the Paracclesion shows the Virgin and Child surrounded by angels

The church was busy but as everything you want to see is at a height and requires looking up other people don’t get in the way so much. For us this was definitely a highlight of our stay and I would say a must see sight for anyone visiting Istanbul.

Evil Eye

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If you’ve been to Turkey you’ll have seen the symbols consisting of blue and yellow concentric circles, and if you haven’t you might have seen one on someone’s keyring or in a picture and wondered what it is. In Turkish they are called ‘Nazar’ which translates as ‘evil eye’ and they are charms to protect against curses cast by malevolent stares.

Evil eye on house number plateEvil eye picture on the number plate of our apartment building

Many houses and shops have one somewhere obvious and we’ve seen them on cars, boats, jewellery and accessories too.

Evil eyesHouses and businesses protected by the evil eye (clockwise from top left): over a house door; on our local simit stand; embedded in the wall over an apartment block entrance; even gold shops need protection

Evil eye on truckEvil eye painted on the back of a truck

A pretty hefty percentage of the average Turkish souvenir shop is taken up with evil eyes too.

Souvenir shopSouvenir shop display

HamsaThey are sometimes doubled up with the open right hand symbol, another protective motif called Hamsa

Bosphorus Cruise

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We’ve done a fair bit of walking through Istanbul so for a change of view we decided to take a cruise. Istanbul is located at the mouth of the Bosphorus Straits, the narrow waterway linking the Sea of Marmara (and beyond that the Mediterranean) with the Black Sea. There are lots of companies offering cruises up the Bosphorus, we opted for the Long Bosphorus cruise offered by Şehir Hatları, the company who run many of the city’s ferry services.

Bosphorus cruise route mapThe route of the cruise we chose is shown by the black line [picture credit: Şehir Hatları]

We were surprised by how busy it was on a Monday in October. Although we’d arrived over half an hour before the cruise was due to depart we were by no means near the front of the queue and we were a little worried that we might not get an outside seat; although there’s plenty of space inside there isn’t much of a view. In the end we managed to snag a place at the back of the boat on the port side which meant we’d be facing Europe on the way out, just what we’d hoped.

On he Bosphorus cruise ferryUs on the bench seats along the side of the cruise boat – we’d recommend bringing a cushion to soften the wooden seats!

As the ferry sailed away from the city centre we soon passed the impressive Dolmabahçe Sarayı, a waterfront palace completed in the mid 19th century and used by most of the sultans after that date as their principal residence.

Dolmabahçe PalaceThe 284m façade of the Dolmabahçe Palace is a striking feature of the Bosphorus shore

Shortly afterwards we passed under the first of the two suspension bridges which cross the straits. Built in 1973 the first one is rather straightforwardly called the Bosphorus Bridge. 5km further north, the second bridge, Fatih Mehmet Bridge, was opened in 1988 and crosses at the channel’s narrowest point, the same place where Persian king Darius I constructed a bridge of boats in 512BC to attack the Scythians. Today it’s mostly trucks and cars crossing rather than invading armies.

Bosphorus bridgesLooking down the Bosphorus with Fatih Mehmet Bridge in the foreground, underneath its span you can see one of the pillars of the Bosphorus Bridge

Just before the Fatih Mehmet Bridge is my favourite of the many fortresses which line the Bosphorus’ banks. Rumeli Hisarı was built by the Ottoman Sultan Fatih Mehmet in 1452, the year before he conquered Istanbul, with the aim of cutting off communication and possible aid to the city from the Black Sea. In cooperation with the smaller Anadolu Hisarı on the opposite shore it was successful in its objective. There are another pair of ancient fortresses further along, also standing opposite each other, as well as at least one modern military base.

Rumeli Hisari castleThe fortress at Rumeli Hisarı has three towers. The builders of the towers competed with each other to complete them with the utmost speed and at least one was erected in just four months!

As the boat moved further from the city centre the villages started to appear more distinctly. The houses were perched on steep hillsides surrounded by forest and each village had a harbour.

Bosphorus villageKuruçeşme village sits between the two bridges

The straits are 30km long and range from 700m to 3.5km in width which sounds quite reasonable until you realise that they are a busy shipping channel with boats of all sizes, including massive container ships and oil tankers, making their way up and down. In the upper reaches we also saw a lot of fishing boats with their nets let out in a circle.

Bosphorus fishing boatFishing boat pulling in its net

The one-way journey to the final stop at Anadolu Kavagi takes about 90 minutes. The ferry waits here for just under three hours allowing all passengers to disembark. Anadolu Kavagi is a small village bounded on the harbourside by a row of fish restaurants to service the many day trippers and overlooked by Yoros Castle. We ran the gauntlet past the restaurant touts and made the short climb up to the fortress.

Yoros CastleYoros Castle is ruined inside but its wall and towers stand

We visited on a bright and clear day and got good views in both directions. To the north is the opening into the Black Sea which is the site of a third bridge, currently under construction and the subject of some controversy due to environmental concerns including the loss of forests and wildlife corridors, as well as potential impacts from increased population migration to the already rapidly growing city. Looking to the south we could see the hills and inlets that we had just cruised by.

Construction of third Bosphorus bridgeView of the third bridge construction, it will be called the Yabuz Sultan Selim Bridge

View to the south from Yoros CastleView down the Bosphorus Straits from Yoros Castle

After descending from the castle we were ready for some lunch. We chose one of the seafront restaurants and ordered grilled fish and salad while we watched fish swim in the waters beside our table and gulls squawk at each other from their perches. It was delicious and reminded me of another, equally tasty lunch which I had beside the sea on my first visit to Turkey 16 years ago with my good friend and our occasional travelling companion Jo.

Grilled fish lunchGrilled fish for lunch

Boarding the ferry for the return journey, we managed to squeeze ourselves onto the port side bench seats once more, but this time we were facing the Asian shore. We again marvelled at some of the waterfront buildings; it obviously has been, and remains, a desirable place to live. There are beautiful mosques, old palaces and more modern looking mansions and hotels.

Waterfront buildingsImpressive buildings on the waterfront (clockwise from top left): Ortaköy Mosque; Küçüksu palace; tower of the palace of the Khedive of Egypt; Kuleli Officers Training College at Vaniköy

The cruise was a nice change of pace from the bustling city streets and a very pleasant way to spend the day for a very reasonable price – just ₺25 (about £7) each for the return journey and although the fish lunch was pricey there were cheaper options in town, or we could have packed a picnic to eat at the castle.