Yoros Castle & Anadolu Kavağı

What do you suppose was the first thing ancient sailors did as they prepared to sail out of the Bosphorus into the Black Sea? Check the sails? Count the provisions? If the ancient sources are to be believed, they first turned toward the hill above Anadolu Kavağı and prayed. At this mouth of the Bosphorus stood a sacred precinct dedicated to Zeus Urios, “sender of fair winds”. Given the wild waves of the Black Sea, it isn’t hard to guess that these prayers were not entirely in vain…