Galata & Beyoğlu

Have you ever dreamed of taking wing from the top of a tower and flying to the far side of the sea? According to Evliya Çelebi, someone did more than dream it… In the reign of Sultan Murad IV, Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi took off from the Galata Tower on wings of his own making, crossed the Bosphorus and landed in Üsküdar, at Doğancılar. The rest of the story is less cheerful; the sultan, it is said, decided that so fearless a man could be dangerous and exiled him to Algeria.