Places to visit in Istanbul
22 places from Istanbul province are on the map: Bosphorus, Golden Horn and Historic Peninsula, Dolmabahçe & Beşiktaş, Sultanahmet & Hagia Sophia, Galata & Beyoğlu, Maiden’s Tower & Üsküdar, and 16 more. Each has a model-like miniature, a short story and a Numa Made ring on Isometric Turkey.
Bosphorus
Can a cow give its name to a sea? It hardly sounds plausible; and yet this is exactly how the story of the Bosphorus begins. In Greek mythology, Zeus turns Io, with whom he has fallen in…
See on the map →Golden Horn and Historic Peninsula
“I am neither within time, / Nor wholly outside it…” says Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar. Whenever I read these lines, the Historic Peninsula comes to mind. Walking inside the city walls, you feel…
See on the map →Dolmabahçe & Beşiktaş
“Yesterday I gazed upon you from a hill, beloved Istanbul!” So begins Yahya Kemal’s famous poem. Now, had the poet’s hill been one of the Yıldız slopes, what would we see in the view spread…
See on the map →Sultanahmet & Hagia Sophia
When a sultan says “altın minare”, golden minaret, what does the architect hear? Legend has it that Sultan Ahmed I wanted his mosque’s minarets to be made of gold, while his architect…
See on the map →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…
See on the map →Maiden’s Tower & Üsküdar
“On the way to Üsküdar the rain came down, / My clerk’s long coat, its hem all mud…” Is there anyone who hasn’t heard this folk song? I can’t say; but few reach the Üsküdar shore without…
See on the map →Ortaköy & Bosphorus Bridge
How many steps lie between two continents? Until the autumn of 1973, the answer was “one ferry ride”. Anyone wishing to cross from Asia to Europe either waited for a ferry at a pier or…
See on the map →Bebek & Arnavutköy
Herodotus, the father of history, tells how the Persian King Darius crossed the Bosphorus on his campaign against the Scythians: on a bridge built by Mandrocles, an engineer from Samos, who…
See on the map →Çamlıca Hill
Is it possible to see Istanbul at a single glance? With its seven hills, two shores, two seas and millions of people, trying to fit this city into a single frame is like pouring an ocean…
See on the map →Princes’ Islands
“Everything begins with loving a human being.” Sait Faik Abasıyanık wrote this sentence in his story ‘A Dot on the Map’. And that dot on the map is Burgazada, lying in the middle of the…
See on the map →Kadıköy & Moda
Legend has it that when Byzas of Megara consulted the oracle at Delphi before setting out to find a new home, he received the answer: “Settle opposite the land of the blind.” When he…
See on the map →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…
See on the map →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…
See on the map →Rumeli Feneri & Garipçe
In Greek mythology, two rocks called the Symplegades stood at the gateway to the Black Sea; if a ship tried to pass between them, they would clash together and smash it to pieces. When…
See on the map →Belgrad Forest
Istanbul · Highlands & Forests
“To live like a tree, alone and free, / and like a forest, in brotherhood…” says Nâzım Hikmet. Walking in Belgrad Forest, north of Istanbul, where the city’s noise reaches you only as a…
See on the map →Kilyos
When the ancient Greeks first reached the Black Sea, they named it Pontos Axeinos, “the inhospitable sea”. With its misty air, sudden storms and wild waves, this sea can hardly have shown a…
See on the map →Şile
How does the name of a town become a fabric? Few come to Şile without seeing those fine, crinkled, light cotton cloths hanging in its market. Şile bezi, Şile cloth… Known for keeping you…
See on the map →Ağva
When a village is built between two streams, which one does it listen to: the babble of one, or the whisper of the other? Visitors to Ağva can’t easily find the answer, because here two…
See on the map →Riva
Have you ever wondered why a stream winds so much on its way to the sea? After all, the shortest path is a straight line… Yet the Riva Stream, leaving the forests north of Istanbul, twists…
See on the map →Polonezköy
Istanbul · Highlands & Forests
It is said that at the official ceremonies where foreign envoys were received at the Ottoman court, one name was read out every time: “The envoy of Lehistan!” And every time, the same reply…
See on the map →Aydos Forest
Istanbul · Highlands & Forests
Ask where the highest point in Istanbul is, and many will say Çamlıca. Yet the city’s true rooftop is Aydos Hill, rising quietly among the forests on the Anatolian side: a full 537 meters…
See on the map →Lake Büyükçekmece
Why would a sultan build a bridge he would never see finished? When Suleiman the Magnificent decided to have Mimar Sinan build a bridge across the marshy flats where Lake Büyükçekmece meets…
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