Category Archives: Experiences

Our excellent guide Tony showing us through the Lascaris War Rooms in Valletta. Here he’s explaining how the island was defended

The Lascaris War Rooms were Malta’s best kept secret of the Allied forces World War II efforts. They’re a series of tunnels and chambers dug some 150m into the bedrock of Valletta – by hand and mostly at night – that were used as the Allied HQ for the invasion of Sicily on the 9^th of July 1943, 11 months before the D-Day landings of Normandy on the 6^th of June 1944.

The name ‘Lascaris’ comes from Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, a descendant of the Greek Byzantine emperors of the same name – yes, the same Byzantine Empire that had Istanbul (nee Constantinople) as its capital – who was elected Grand Master of the Order St John (the same knights who built the Co-Cathedral). After a year in office Grand Master Lascaris ordered the construction of defensive towers along the coastline of Malta, one of which you’ve already seen as it’s the sunset picture at the end of our Dingli Cliffs walk.

After the British took control of the Maltese Islands in 1800, they extended the fortifications built by the Knights, and in 1854 started the Lascaris Fort and Battery – a defensive platform for cannon which overlooks the southern harbour of Valletta, so named because they were built on the site of Lascaris’ former private garden.

View of Fort Lascaris and the Lascaris Battery from the other side of the harbour. The Battery is the row of arches right in the middle, and the Lascaris War Rooms are underneath the giant wall just in front, with Fort Lascaris sitting on the waterfront – the high walls with two rows of small defensive windows

When Italy declared war on France and Great Britain on the 10^th of June 1940, work started to enlarge the tunnel that ran from Fort Lascaris up to the main ditch in Valletta which was originally dug by the Knights, as the island needed bomb shelters. Soon rooms were carved out and as there was need for a central place to coordinate war efforts in the Mediterranean, the Allied HQ moved in.

The upper corridor of the Lascaris War Rooms, they carved out two floors of rooms and decorated it with scrap material from bombed houses. All of the metal was recovered from ships sunk in the harbour

The upper corridor of the Lascaris War Rooms, they carved out two floors of rooms and decorated it with scrap materials from bombed houses such as the floor tiles. All of the metal was recovered from ships sunk in the harbour

When I mentioned earlier that Malta has had a surprisingly long and eventful history for such a tiny landmass, this was what I was referring to – we had no idea of the pivotal role that Malta played in the events of World War II. The story of these tunnels and command rooms is absolutely fascinating, and expertly brought to life by the amazing restoration work and by the simply outstanding storytelling guide Tony – whose father helped dig them!

The office of Admiral Andrew Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief of the British naval forces, looks out over the command room of Operation Husky

We got to the museum early on a week day, and I’d recommend you do the same – especially as we visited in the middle of off-peak November. The tour begins with a short Pathé newsreel broadcast of a supply convoy’s journey from Britain to Malta which showed the logistical and life-threatening challenge of keeping strategically important Malta defended. There were only ever enough supplies to last 3 months, and if just two of these convoys didn’t make it in succession then the island would have had no choice but to surrender.

The museum opens with an Associated British Pathe newsreel story about a supply convoy from Britain to Malta

The museum opens with an Associated British Pathé newsreel story about the supply convoys from Britain to Malta

After the video, the audioguide took us through the rooms and rather dryly explained what each room was used for and who was stationed there, but when we got to the first of the main rooms – command room for the offensive Operation Husky, Tony picked up the commentary and started filling in the history with anecdotes of the various commanders and their rivalries.

The heart of Operation Husky, the massive plan of the invasion of Sicily and the start of the Allied offensive campaign against the Axis in World War II

When a tour group arrived he apologised and left to meet them, so we continued through the narrow corridors and past the second major room, the defensive situation room where attacks on Malta were tracked and squadrons of aeroplanes were organised to defend the island.

The defence command and situation room. The board at the back (top-right) records the state of the 12 defensive flying squadrons and the big map in the middle records the last confirmed location of enemy aircraft

Pretty soon we heard Tony again as he was showing the group around the maze of tunnels so we decided we’d tag along! While the audioguide had told us what the squadron board was for in the island defence command room, Tony filled in the details of how the squadrons were rotated. Because radar was crude and aeroplanes were slow to climb by todays standards, it was too late to scramble them to intercept bombers so constant air cover was used. This decision, with the limitations of fighter aircraft having a maximum 90-odd minutes of flight time, meant they had to launch new squadrons every 15 minutes! It took each squadron 30 minutes to get up to altitude, and another 15 to get down which meant they could provide about 30 to 45 minutes of cover before they had to return to refuel. Imagine the effort of the ground crew preparing for 12 aircraft taking off and another landing every 15 minutes. Astounding.

The defensive squadron situation room sits behind the squadron board shown in the last photo above - it's a series of slats that the operators on this side update with little metal tags as new information comes in

The defensive squadron situation room sits behind the squadron board shown in the last photo above – it’s a series of angled slats that the operators on this side update with little metal tags as new information comes in

From there we returned to the heart of Operation Husky, the room where General Eisenhower and his Supreme Commanders Admiral Cunningham, Field Marshal Montgomery and Air Marshal Tedder planned their attack on Sicily. Tony told us how Eisenhower had great trouble getting the two large egos of the American and British commanders to work together and in the end decided to give them the same objective but start them from different beaches – a tactic that brought out their competitiveness and which Eisenhower used again in the D-Day landings – no British and American forces landed on the same beach in either operation.

One of the telephone switchboards in a small communications room. Every time we see one of these manual switchboards I can’t help but remark that my Mum used to operate one like it when she started working – not one quite this old, mind you!

Recognised as strategically important to the outcome of the war, the Axis forces ran more than 3,000 bombing raids in 2 years over Malta, making it the most intensively bombed area of the conflict. For maintaining control of Malta, King George VI awarded the nation the George Cross for Gallantry, the first time in history it was bestowed to a collective.

The George Cross for Gallantry awarded to the people of Malta and which adorns the nation’s flag. The accompanying letter reads: “The Governor, Malta. To honour her brave people I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history. George R.I. April 15th 1942”

After World War II the Lascaris War Rooms continued to be used by the British as their Mediterranean Fleet HQ until 1967 when NATO took over to use them as a Communications Centre for the interception of Soviet submarine transmissions during the Cold War. NATO also added a lot more rooms on the other side of tunnel and they’re currently being restored to be opened to the public in 2015 as a Cold War Museum right opposite the WWII Lascaris War Rooms. It would be equally fascinating to return to Valletta to visit these more modern bunkers, especially as we’ve seen their Soviet equivalent in Latvia earlier in our trip!

Self-guided food tour of Istanbul

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Food tours are an excellent way of finding the local delicacies and the little out-of-the-way places that make the best versions of them. They’re also great for presenting things that you wouldn’t ordinarily try, such as the prawn cakes made from whole prawns that we enjoyed so much in Vietnam that we went back for seconds when Jo came out to join us!

Approaching the busy ferry port of Eminönü in Istanbul – the start of our self-guided food tour

As we knew we’d be spending a bit of time in Istanbul, we looked for a street food tour but were quickly put off by the prices – some as high as $145 USD, about £92 GBP. Each. Yes, this is a big, bustling city but we didn’t want to pay big city prices. A little bit of research later and I had compiled a list of foods to look out for while we strolled around.

Here then, is our list of what to try and where to find it presented in a vaguely sensible order that has been curated over the course of weeks, and could be tackled in a day or so depending on your appetite..

First though, a quick summary of what you’re about to eat, and how much (roughly) it’ll cost.

	Cost (Turkish Lira)
Coffee and baklava	10
Spices, dried fruit and lokum (Turkish delight)	20
Borek and çay (tea)	9
Simit on the ferry	2
Balik ekmek and turnip juice	6
Turkish ice cream (two scoops)	5
Kokoreç and ayran	9
Delicatessen	~20
Coffee	8
Dinner at either Kadi Nimet or Çiya Sofrasi	~50
Total (TRY):	~119
Total (GBP):	~£34

Eminönü: Coffee and Baklava at Develi Baklava

First stop - coffee and pastry at the tiny Develi Baklava. Click for a map

First stop – coffee and pastry at the tiny Develi Baklava. Click the image for a map

The best way to start the day with the one-two punch of strong coffee and sweet, sweet baklava – a small Turkish dessert made of pastry, nuts and soaked in honey!

Directions:
Starting in Eminönü, in the square outside the Yeni Cami and the Spice Bazaar, keep the Spice Bazaar on your left as you walk up the right-hand side of it, then take your first right up a small alley – there’s a very busy coffee shop that sells fantastic freshly ground Turkish coffee on the corner (we’ll be back this way soon, so you can try it first and buy some on the way back). After about 150 metres look out for the green neon of Develi Baklava, a little coffee shop with astroturf and two little tables outside. Pop in and choose 2 or 3 different baklava from the counter to go with your Turkish coffee. Try to grab one of the outside tables as this alley is great for people watching.

Eminönü: Spice Bazaar, Spices, Dried Fruit and Lokum

Time to graze on nuts, dried fruit, spices and Turkish delight in the ever-busy Spice Bazaar. Click for a map

Time to graze on nuts, dried fruit, spices and Turkish delight in the ever-busy Spice Bazaar. Click on the image for a map

We’re in Turkey, so we are obligated to try the other sweet they’re internationally famous for, Lokum or Turkish Delight.

Directions:
Head back towards the Spice Bazaar, stopping for a take-away bag of ground coffee from the shop on the right-hand corner if you wish.
Next, we’re going to wander through the Spice Bazaar, but if you’re after lokum or Turkish Delight then the best place is actually on the outside of the Bazaar – it’s the on the street to your left, along the side of the Bazaar, called Kesekler (it’s the 3rd shop from the end). Why’s it the best? The plain lokum is less than half the price you’ll pay inside the bazaar (7 TL/kg) and they sell a lot so it’s fresh too. The lokum is at the back, be sure to point at any of the logs of nut, flower or chocolate covered lokum and they’ll offer a free taste! (the logs are 46TL/kg, or about 8-10 TL/kg per log)

The Spice Bazaar is a big ‘L’ shape, so follow it along stopping to sample the nuts and dried fruits or smell the spices, teas and soaps, and exit from the long end, near the back of Yeni Cami.

Eminönü: Borek and Çay

The best Istanbul breakfast - borek. Brilliant. Click for a map

The best Istanbul breakfast – borek. Brilliant. Click on the image for a map

Time for breakfast! Borek is a traditional Turkish dish that consists of layers of pastry and cheese, a bit like a light cheese-only lasagne. And it’s a great as it sounds!

Directions:
Exiting from the Spice Bazaar, turn left and you’ll see Yeni Cami again. When you reach it, turn right past the Sultan’s entrance (the long ramp up the rear of the mosque) then take the next left. Follow ‘Arpacilar Caddesi’ round to the left then look out for the red sun-shade of ‘Sariyer Borekcisi’ (No 10). Pop in and order borek and çay (pronounced “chai” – tea!). The tea is served quite differently to other countries we’ve visited. Here it’s served in a small handle-less glass cup, without milk and is very strong. We rarely managed a glass without adding sugar and we like strong flavours!

Eminönü to Kadiköy: From Europe to Asia

Let's go to Asia - and don't forget to pick up a Nutella simit in case you're still peckish! Click for a map

Let’s go to Asia – and don’t forget to pick up a Nutella simit in case you’re still peckish! Click the image for a map

Do as the İstanbullu do and sip çay while reading the newspaper or catching up on email and Facebook as you cruise across the Bosphorus to the Asian side of the city.

Directions:
15 metres further along Arpacilar Cadesi and you’ll be at Eminönü tram station. Use the crossing to your left to cross the road, the tramlines and the road again until you’re at the water’s edge and look for the ferry terminal to Kadiköy – it’s the one on your right with Kadiköy written on it. If you’re still a little hungry, pick up a simit for the journey – they’re a small, crispy, round bread covered in sesame seeds. For another Lira you can have it filled with Nutella! The ferry to Kadiköy takes about 25 minutes.

Kadiköy: Balik Ekmek and Turnip Juice

It’s not quite fish and chips, but it is very tasty indeed! We found this place because we stayed in an apartment next door, or rather, I should say that the smell of frying fish found us.. Click the image for a map

Time for a spot of lunch and one of our favourites: Balik Ekmek literally “fish bread” or fish sandwich, washed down with the traditional accompaniment of turnip juice. Yum! The fish is pan-fried mackerel, and does contain some bones.

Directions:
The place we recommend is about a 15 minute walk, which gives us chance to work up an appetite! Exit from the Kadiköy Ferry terminal and cross the big pedestrian square in front of you – keep the bus station to your left and the only building in the square to your right – just follow the crowds from the ferry – everyone heads for ‘Söğütlü Çeşme Caddesi’, the main street. Cross over to the right-hand side and follow the tram tracks up the hill, then cross the tracks as they veer right up a cobbled road. Continue straight and downhill on ‘Kuşdili Caddesi’ past the busy bus stop, past the banks and rows of clothes shops and take the right at the crossroads onto ‘Hasirci Başi Caddesi’. There’s a fancy cake shop on the corner and a car park opposite. About 5 or 6 shops down on your right is Albatross – order your balik ekmek, find a table inside and help yourself to a turnip juice from the fridge. Oh, and say hi to Mehmet for us :)

Kadiköy: Turkish Ice Cream

Amazing Turkish chocolate ice cream. Save yourself the walk back and just order two scoops the first time.. Click for a map

Amazing Turkish chocolate ice cream. Save yourself the walk back and just order two scoops the first time.. Click on the image for a map

There’s always room for ice cream, and Turkish ice cream is some of the best in the world – thick, creamy, and intensely flavoured.

Directions:
Watch your step as you leave Albatross, continue up ‘Hasirci Başi Caddesi’ and take the first right – not the first small turning, the one with the corner shop on the corner of ‘Süleyman Paşa Sokaği’. Walk uphill until you reach the tram tracks on the cobbled street, cross them and the road, and you’re on the top of the hill. Immediately to your right, the 2nd shop along is our destination. The scoops are small, which is enough of an excuse to order two. I’d suggest two scoops of chocolate unless another flavour takes your fancy!

Kadiköy: Kokoreç and Ayran

Kokoreç washed down with ayran at Kokoretto in Kadiköy. Click for a map

Kokoreç washed down with ayran at Kokoretto in Kadiköy. Click the image for a map

Lunch isn’t over yet, it’s time for another Istanbul speciality – Kokoreç (pronounced ‘kokoretch’) washed down with ayran. If you’re reaching bursting point, maybe get one to share or ask for a taste.

Directions:
Continue downhill on the same street, and at about the point where you run out ice cream, you’ll find ‘Kokoretto’ on your right. Kokoreç is cooked outside like a kebab, but it’s horizontal as opposed to vertical, and cooked over charcoal. Ayran is a great accompaniment, it’s a light yoghurt drink, similar to Indian Lassi, though it’s not as sweet. What is Kokoreç, you ask? Hmm.. I think I’ll tell you after you’ve eaten it. All you need to know now is that it’s tasty!

Kadiköy: A wander around the delicatessens

Take your time to wander through the deli counters on delicatessen street. Click for a map

Take your time to wander through the deli counters on delicatessen street. Click on the image for a map

This next area doesn’t involve eating, though you’re welcome to sample or take some home for later, in fact, it would surprise us if you didn’t!

Directions:
Staying on the same downhill street, keep going as it twists a little left then a little right until you cross the road into the steeper, narrower pedestrian (and occasional scooter) alleyways of the old Kadiköy market area. The clothes and mobile phone shops are replaced by cafes and wholesale dried goods, and at the next junction you’ll be surrounded by fresh fishmongers – we’ll call this fishmonger junction for future reference.

There are a few delicatessens on the perpendicular street – ‘Güneşli Bahçe Sokaği’, so pick a direction (either left or right) and pop into one or two for a good look around. One of our favourite things to do is buy 5 or 6 different dishes and a fresh baguette to create our very own Istanbul meze dinner – great if you’re staying in an apartment or for a picnic in one of the city’s many parks or a trip to the Princes’ Islands.

Kadiköy: More Turkish Coffee!

Turkish coffee at its finest served at Fazil Bey. How do you know it's Turkish coffee? The lokum gives it away.. Click for a map

Turkish coffee at its finest served at Fazil Bey. How do you know it’s Turkish coffee? The lokum of course! Click the image for a map

There are plenty of little cafes in this narrow, compact area of Kadiköy, and the most famous of them is Fazil Bey where we’ll soak up the cafe culture until we find ourselves ready for a spot of dinner.

Directions:
Return to the fishmonger junction, and turn downhill along ‘Serasker Caddesi’ from the smells of fresh produce to the smells of freshly ground coffee. Fazil Bey is just before the next junction on your right, find a seat and you’ll be presented with a menu.

Kadiköy: Dinnertime – Meat or Fish?

Your choice for dinner – fantastic fresh fish dishes at Kadi Nimet Balikçilik (top); and remarkable regional specialities at Çiya Sofrasi (bottom). Both feature in the Lonely Planet Click on the image for a map

It’s eating time again! There are two very good restaurants just around the corner, one ‘Kadi Nimet Balikçilik‘ specialises in fish and the other, ‘Çiya Sofrasi‘ (pronounced ‘Chiya Sofrasi’) specialises in family recipes from around Turkey and is where a few of the guided food tours end up for dinner. We’ve eaten at both and they’re both great.

Directions: Kadi Nimet Balikçilik
Head back up the alley to the fishmonger junction and Kadi Nimet Balikçilik is on the corner on your right. There are plenty of seats inside and upstairs though it does get very busy. I can heartily recommend the levrek dolma or stuffed sea bass meze and the stuffed mussels (pictured above) – the sea bass is amazing!

Directions: Çiya Sofrasi
Head back up the alley to the fishmonger junction and turn right down ‘Güneşli Bahçe Sokaği’, Çiya Sofrasi is about 130 metres along on your left. This place also gets busy and for very good reason. They have 3 restaurants in this street that specialise in different styles of Turkish food but Sofrasi is the one to choose. They have a great salad bar and a wide selection of vegetarian dishes. Definitely order the ‘puff lavash‘ because it sounds funny (and it’s tasty)!

Fin.
That’s it, do you have room for a mint? It’s only a tiny little thin one.

Further eating..

You want more? You piggy! I like you! Clockwise from top-left: Doner Kebab – beef or chicken are the most common and they’re made from pieces of meat and cut with a long knife rather than the sheared mince back home; Menemen – tomatoes, eggs, cheese and spices; Pide – Turkish pizza; Lahmacun – thin crispy pizza-like base with a tomato and minced meat paste, tasty!; Gozleme – cheese and spinach wrapped in a soft tortilla; Julie enjoying a freshly squeezed orange juice from an uncharacteristically shy juice vendor

Here’s a list of some other Turkish specialities that you can look out for while strolling through this great city:

Doner Kebabs – they’re everywhere, and very tasty. Our favourite options are ‘lavash’ which means in a wrap, ‘portion’ where you get chips on the side and ‘pilav’ which comes with rice
Menemen – tomatoes, green peppers and eggs cooked with onions and spices. The best can be found in Beyoğlu at the Setup Cafe just up the hill from Kabataş tram stop. Add the feta – you will not be disappointed
Pide – this is what I call Turkish pizza. That’s enough of a reason
Lahmacun – usually found alongside pide, it’s like a very thin crust pizza without the cheese, and makes a great pre-pide starter!
Gozleme – this is one of our favourite lunch-time goto’s, a soft tortilla-like bread usually filled with feta and spinach or potato and cooked on a big domed hotplate by women with big wooden paddles
Fresh orange or pomegranate juice – you’re never far from a cart selling freshly squeezed orange or pomegranate juice, and at 2 TL a cup they’re a great thirst quencher after you’ve just walked up one of the many hills and need an excuse to stand still for 5 minutes to catch your breath

Ahh yes, kokoreç.. if you don’t know what ‘sweetbread’ is then I suggest you maintain a state of blissful ignorance. And definitely try it before you look it up.

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.

The 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.

Us 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.

The 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.

Looking 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.

The 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.

Kuruçeşme 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.

Fishing 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 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.

View of the third bridge construction, it will be called the Yabuz Sultan Selim Bridge

View 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 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.

Impressive 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.

Üsküdar – a walk on the Asian side

Şemsi Paşa Camii

Şemsi Paşa Camii, a cute little mosque right on the Bosphorus shoreline with its single minaret

Even though there aren’t any monuments dating to the Byzantine period, the Ottoman royal families liked to build mosques and pious foundations across the river in part for the same reason we wanted to visit – because it allowed them to escape the bustle of the centre.

Our favourite sight of the day was the cute riverside mosque called Şemsi Paşa, described as one of Sinan’s most delightful smaller külliyes (a complex of buildings, centred on a mosque).

Şemsi Paşa Camii has a few unique features, such as an attached türbe separated by a grille from the main prayer room

When we entered we were greeted by the friendly imam who handed us a sheet of information in English, asked us if we spoke Turkish or German – to which we said no and apologised for not knowing either – then he proceeded to give us the tour. In German.

We got the gist and he was delighted to point out a few of the unusual features of the mosque, such as the türbe being attached and visible through a grill in one of the walls, and perhaps the coolest mihrab in Istanbul if not the world.. it has spinning marble columns!

The imam showing us and 3 other visitors from England some of the unique features of this quaint little mosque, like the spinning green marble columns in the mihrab!

Ayazma Camii

The imposing baroque Ayazma Camii, undergoing renovations so sadly we couldn’t take a look inside

Prominently positioned on the crest of the hill overlooking the end of Üsküdar and the mouth of the Golden Horn is the imposing baroque Ayazma Camii. A dark, towering hulk of a mosque which we were glad to see being restored, but sad we weren’t able to look around as it was completely surrounded by fences and scaffolding.

Atik Valide Külliyesi

The heart of the delightful Atik Valide Complex - the Atik Valide Mosque and ablutions fountain in the courtyard

The heart of the delightful Atik Valide Külliyesi – the Atik Valide Mosque and ablutions fountain in the courtyard

After a long walk up the main street from the ferry port, we came to another külliye with a vantage point over the Bosphorus, also designed by the hand of the great Sinan, the lovely Atik Valide Külliyesi.

Inside the Atik Valide Camii with a few latecomers to afternoon prayer

Described as the “most splendid and extensive of of all Sinan’s constructions in Istanbul with the sole exception of the Süleymaniye” it consists of a medrese (school), a hospital, an imaret (public kitchen), a tabhane (hospice for travelling dervishes), a dar-ül hadis (school for learning sacred tradition), a dar-ül kura (school for learing the Qu’ran), a mektep (primary school), a kervansaray (inn or hostel for travelling merchants), and a hamam (public bathhouse) – remarkably all of the them still exist today, though in various states of repair.

Details of Atik Valide Camii. Clockwise from top-left: beautifully decorated central dome and four semi-domes; the decoration continues over the main door; rich painted ceilings of the ground floor galleries; and hardly noticeable repairs to the exterior tile work

The main access to the medrese is opposite the mosque, but finding the doors locked we wandered down to the side entrance to find it also closed. We tried the handle and tentatively pushed it open, stepping inside. An old man sitting at a table with a drink locked eyes with me, and in my best tourist charades I asked if it was OK for us to enter. He motioned to one of 3 younger guys moving chairs who looked up, saw us and gave us a most welcoming gesture.

The medrese of the Atik Valide Complex, a peaceful, enclosed courtyard

After we’d had a good look around, the young guy came over to meet us and opened up the main door back to the mosque which afforded a lovely framed view of the domes of the şadirvan (the ablutions fountain) and the mosque.

The domes of the Atik Valide şadirvan and mosque viewed from the medrese

The mosque and the medrese where the only buildings that it was possible to enter – indeed the kervansaray looks to be an advanced state of decay, but, like many of the old buildings across Istanbul, is currently being restored.

For all there were only a few highlights for us on this stroll, it was nice to get a different, more local feel for the city.

two year trip

Andrew and Julie's Travelling Adventures

Category Archives: Experiences

The President’s Solidarity Fun Run 2014

Lascaris War Rooms, Valletta

Self-guided food tour of Istanbul

Eminönü: Coffee and Baklava at Develi Baklava