Eyüp Sultan & Pierre Loti

How does a French sailor’s name come to be given to a hill in Istanbul? The answer awaits you at the far end of the Golden Horn, where the water slowly narrows and mingles with streams, at the top of a path climbing through the cemeteries of Eyüp. Pierre Loti was a naval officer who came to Istanbul in the late 19th century, lost his heart to the city and to the Turks, and poured this passion into his novel ‘Aziyadé’. Legend has it he would sit in the coffeehouse on the hill and gaze at the Golden Horn for hours… And ever since, the hill has borne his name.