This map shows the strategic importance of the Bosporus Strait which controls access from the Black Sea to all the oceans of the world.
Please push the F11 key to see these photos full screen.
We sailed aboard the all-suite (57 of them) Corinthian II chartered in Malta. If you're into specs, its length is 297 feet; beam, 50 feet; draft, 12 feet; gross tonnage is 4,200.
We left from this dock at just about the foot of the Golden Horn, a rhinoceros-horn-shaped inlet dividing the old and new European portions of Istanbul. Above is the Galata Tower built by the Genoese in 1348. (Genoa had a colony here from 1273 until the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453.)
This shows the entrance of the Golden Horn and the Galata Bridge. The Bosporus is the only way for Black Sea fish (mostly mackerel, mullet, and hamsi--something like an anchovy)to migrate to the Mediterranean and some get waylaid by Turks such as these. The Byzantine Empire harbored its navy here, extending a huge chain across the channel; only the Venetian ships were able to break it when they brought the Fourth Crusade to "save" the already Christian Constantinople. This turned out to be one of the worst sackings of a city in history--and the Crusaders never made it to Jerusalem.
Back on the ship, now, we see the dome of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque); before it is the Topkapi Palace; the ancient (c.349) sea wall at the shoreline once protected one of the most strategic points in the world. From here, a cannon could control the Bosporus Strait and the Golden Horn.
Here's the opposite view of the previous photo, this one taken from a veranda of the Topkapi palace which rises from the Roman citadel (you can still see a sliver of the defensive sea wall at lower left). Turks call this Sarayburnu ("palace point") while English-speaking tourists call it Seraglio Point. In the left distance, the Bosporus Bridge connects Europe (left) with Asia (right). At right, the bottom of the Bosporus approaches the Sea of Marmara. At middle left, the Strait enters the Golden Horn.
Istanbul is big, the third largest city in the world, but not so big that this shorescape would show the curvature of the earth. Instead, it's a digital camera fluke caused by software putting together too many birds-eye-lens pictures. The European shoreline above centers around the Dolmabahçe Palace where the Sultans moved around 1850 after four centuries at the Topkapi Palace.
The Dolmabahçe Palace was the first European style palace built in Istanbul for the Sultan. It served as the seat of the government from 1853 until 1922 -- except for 20 years when the Sultan feared attack from the sea. As you can see, it would be pretty defenseless, unlike the Topkapi Palace which it replaced. We'll have lots of pictures on both of these palaces posted to the web soon.
This site was originally a bay but was filled in to create a garden for the Sultan's family, giving it its name, a combination of "filled in" (Dolma) and "garden" (bahçe).
This view of one of the Dolmabahçe Palace's sea gates was taken from the palace grounds. As you can see, the place is nearly defenseless from a sea attack. With this in mind, the eccentric Sultan Abdül Hamid II moved upstream and uphill to the Yıldız Palace ("Star Palace") in the 1880s. But his nemesis came from within as the Young Turks deposed him in 1909 and ended the absolute power of the Sultanate.
The Dolmabahçe Palace has its own mosque on riverfront property, of course. (The rest of the palace is on the right). This gives us one of the nearly infinite Istanbul juxtapositions of past and future: the post-modern Ritz Carlton looming over the Dolmabahçe Palace Mosque -- and a soccer stadium raising its light poles up to minaret heights from behind). Religious, Athletic, Commercial -- the skyline is the new pantheon.
Let us now speak of the bridges of the Bosporus: in two places they connect the two sides of the world's 3rd largest city . Easily visible from the Topkapi Palace area, where this was taken, is this 1973 span imaginatively called "The First Bosporus Bridge." It opened almost exactly 50 years after the founding of the Republic of Turkey in October 1923. The Turks love to play up these bridges by sponsoring promotional activities such as an intercontinental tennis match played on the surface in 2005 and annual bi-continental marathons. In 2007, they added a computerized lighting system to illuminate the span with changing colors.
Here's another shot of the Bosporus Bridge, this one taken at sunrise from the Corinthian II returning from the Black Sea. This nearly mile-long suspension bridge connects the Ortaköy district of Istanbul in Europe to the Beylerbey district in Asia. Unseen is the rush hour traffic, assisted by reversible lanes that move four lanes of traffic from Asia to Europe in the morning with the sun at their backs. In the afternoon, both lanes and sun are reversed.
This is the European pillar of the Bosporus bridge rising above the Ortaköy neighborhood. Out of sight is the tri-lingual Galatasaray University where classes may be taught in French, English, or Turkish. (Any Pentecostals out there?) George W. Bush addressed NATO here in 2004, probably in what we Texans call English.
Another view of Ortaköy -- and one of the 48,000 ships which somehow traverse this narrow channel every year (not counting local traffic such as the innumerable ferries). While owned by Turkey, the Bosporus (and its sister strait, the Dardanelles) are treated as international waterways -- but Turkey (neutral in WWII but now a NATO stalwart) has the right to restrict the navies of all but the Black Sea countries. This was a sticking point first for Nazi Germany when they wanted to attack the Soviet Union from the South, and then for the Soviets themselves. Recently the Bush White House wanted to send a carrier fleet through the straits to visit Georgia -- but the Pentagon informed them that the international treaty only allows one warship at a time, and that with small guns only. Aircraft carriers are banned outright. Today much Russian oil is transported through here to Western Europe and the US. With oil replacing carriers and ICBMs as the weapon of choice, this waterway is as strategic as ever.
At the foot of the Çamlica hills, the French Baroque Beylerbeyi Palace anchors the Asian side of the Bosporus Bridge. This was built as a summer palace while the Sultan still lived in the Topkapi Palace only about a mile away but further from the water's edge. Living here probably whetted the Sultan's appetite for a modern palace as they began to build the Dolmabahçe Palace a decade later. One of the two tent-shaped kiosks is shown at right with the sea gate to its left -- The two kiosks just out over the quay to allow swimming in the strait -- with separate kiosks for men and women.
A scant 5 kilometers from the Bosporus Bridge is her sister, the 1988 Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, named after the Sultan who conquered Constantinople at the age of 21. He was Sultan twice, the first at age 12 when he talked his father, who had abdicated, into taking the sultanship back. Fatih wrote him a letter that said: "If you are the Sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to come and lead my armies." It worked but his father was unable to conquer the Byzantine capital. His son, Fatih Sultan Mehmet, finished the job in 1453.
This is the narrowest part of the strait and, as such, has long been fortified on both sides. Here we see the newer Fortress of Europe built by Fatih Sultan Mehmet as part of his effort to conquer Constantinople which succeeded shortly after this was built in the early 1450s. Genoa had several ports on the Black Sea which could send supplies and troops to the besieged Constantinople -- until this fort stopped them. At water's edge is a 12 sided tower with 9 stories. Cannons here could blast ships in front of them to bits, as the Venetians soon found out. (Surviving sailors were impaled as an example to those who followed.) In later years, the fort became a prison when it was replaced by fortifications near the entrance to the Black Sea.
The fort replaced a monastery which itself replaced a Roman fort. It's called Rumelihisarı which means "fortress on Roman land." Its three large towers are named for the Ottoman pashas (noblemen) who constructed them. Wartime is often compressed and this fort was built in 4 1/2 months, probably with the pashas competing against each other for the fastest erection. Was their motto, "make war, not love?"
OK, no more puns (maybe--we haven't gotten to harems, yet)....Across the strait from Rumelihisarı is the earlier Anadolu Hisari, the Fortress of Asia, built about a half-century before by Bayezid I, the great grandfather of the conquering Fatih Sultan Mehmet.
This was built as a watch fort, to keep an eye on traffic, but not necessarily to control it with cannons. It is the oldest Turkish building left in Istanbul. Its square towers rise about 75 feet.
Near the bridge on the Asian side is the baroque Küçüksu Palace. If this looks a little like the much larger Dolmabahçe Palace or the Beylerbeyi Palace, it may because the architects all came from the same Armenian family, the Baylans, who Westernized the face of Istanbul over 5 generations.
For a Sultan's house, this is tiny, and was used only for short stays after it replaced a wooden palace in the 1850s. Look closely to see one side of the curving front staircase. The Küçüksu Palace sits between two streams that drain into the strait. For centuries, Sultans brought their families here to picnic on the meadows between the rivers. Küçüksu means "small water."
Nearby on the Asian shore (but far stylistically from the baroque palaces), is the Kuleli Military High School, the first military high school in Istanbul (although not at this location which it occupied after WWII).
Now let's explore the waterfront facades of the many Villas (called Yalis) that line both sides of the Bosporus. These served as summer residences for the Ottoman court nobles (Pashas, viziers, and others.) Over time, the became architectural advertisements of the owners' wealth and prestige. At center we see one painted in "rust red" which became the traditional color for Yalis and was known as "Ottoman rose."
Baroque wooden trimmings on this balcony which itself juts over the sea are characteristic of Yali architecture.
Later the color of Ottoman Red was augmented with other pastel tints. Elaborate wood carvings are characteristic of the "cosmopolitan period" between 1867 and 1908.
Today 620 Yalis survive. Most are from the 19th century.
Another Istanbulian juxtaposition of the new and the old. In this case of Yalis...
...but out front we see the new...
...and the old in boats, as well.
Pastels, woodwork -- and now a seaside bank
The Art Nouveau Egyptian Consulate (circa 1900) is on the European side about halfway between the bridges in the fashionable Bebek neighborhood. It's hard to see the wrought-iron fence and some of the other details but the mansard roof shows the influence of 19th century French architecture here. This was the summer palace of the ruler (khedive) of Egypt and the Sudan. When the British deposed the last khedive in 1914, this became the Egyptian Consulate.
Here's a typical ferry stop along the shore; the ferry makes several trips to six neighborhoods for the bargain rate of about US$1.40 per passenger. Guide books recommend tourists kill a day riding it and lunching during the boats extended stop at Rumeli Kavağı, a port on the European side almost to the Black Sea.
At last we reached the entrance to the Black Sea, passing the ruins of Yoros Castle on the Asian side. In Byzantine days, a giant chain was sometimes stretched across the strait here to stop ships from entering the strait. The Byzantines, Genoans, and Ottomans fought over this bit of turf for centuries, even after the conquest of Constantinople (when the Genoans holed up here.) Today it's the capstone of a fishing community.
Behind us through nearly 20 miles of mist, Istanbul and its skyscrapers bid us bon voyage as we enter the Black Sea.
