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14/10/2015

Kadıköy (Turkish pronunciation: [kaˈdɯkøj] ( listen); ancient and Byzantine Chalcedon (Greek: Χαλκηδών)), is a large, populous, and cosmopolitan district of Istanbul, Turkey on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara, facing the historic city centre on the European side of the Bosporus. Kadıköy is also the name of the most prominent neighbourhood of the district, a residential and commercial area that, with its numerous bars, cinemas and bookshops, is the cultural centre of the Anatolian side of Istanbul. Kadıköy became a district in 1928 when it was separated from Üsküdar district. The neighbourhoods of İçerenköy, Bostancı and Suadiye were also separated from the district of Kartal in the same year[citation needed], and eventually joined the newly formed district of Kadıköy. Its neighbouring districts are Üsküdar to the northwest, Ataşehir to the northeast, Maltepe to the southeast, and Kartal beyond Maltepe. The population of Kadıköy district, according to the 2007 census, is 509,282.
Kadıköy is an older settlement than most of those on the Asian side of the city of İstanbul. Relics dating to 5500-3500 BC (Chalcolithic period) have been found at the Fikirtepe Mound, and articles of stone, bone, ceramic, jewelry and bronze show that there has been a continuous settlement since prehistoric times. A port settlement dating from the Phoenicians has also been discovered. Chalcedon was the first settlement which the Greeks from Megara established on the Bosphorus, in 685 BC, a few years before they established Byzantium on the other side of the strait in 667 BC. Chalcedon became known as the 'city of the blind', the story being that Byzantium was founded following a prophecy that a great capital would be built 'opposite the city of the blind' (meaning that the people of Chalcedon must have been blind not to see the obvious value of the peninsula on the Golden Horn as a natural defensive harbour). Chalcedon changed hands time and time again, as Persians, Bithynians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, and Turks passed through the area, which was badly damaged during the Fourth Crusade and came into Ottoman hands in 1353, a full century before Constantinople. Thus, Kadıköy has the oldest mosque in İstanbul, built almost a century before the conquest of Constantinople in 1453.[citation needed]

At the time of the conquest, Chalcedon was a rural settlement outside the protection of the city. It was soon put under the jurisdiction of the Constantinople courts, hence the name Kadıköy, which means Village of the Judge. In the Ottoman period, Kadıköy became a popular market for agricultural goods and in time developed into a residential area for people who would commute to the city by boat. The population was the typical Ottoman Constantinople mix of Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, Jews and Turks. Kadıköy has several churches (Greek, Armenian, Serbian, Catholic, Protestant) and synagogues.
The major Haydarpaşa Terminal of the Turkish State Railways is located close to Kadıköy's center, having served east- and south-bound international, domestic and regional trains until 2009. Haydarpaşa Terminal was opened in 1908 as the terminus of the İstanbul-Baghdad and İstanbul-Damascus-Medina railways. This, along with the Sirkeci Terminal, has services to all Turkey.

The Söğütlüçeşme railway station, the next station to Haydarpaşa Terminal, is located also in Kadıköy. The terminus of the Metrobus line to European side of Istanbul is situated next to the railway station.

The M4 line of the Istanbul Metro runs from Kadıköy to Kartal daily between 6:00 and 0:04.

The centre of Kadıköy today is the transportation hub for people commuting between the Asian side of the city and the European side across the Bosphorus. There is a large bus and minibus terminal next to the ferry docks. Ferries are the most dominantly visible form of transport in Kadıköy, and the central market area is adjacent to the ferry dock.

08/10/2015

The Galata Bridge (Turkish: Galata Köprüsü) is a bridge that spans the Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey. From the end of the 19th century in particular, the bridge has featured in Turkish literature, theater, poetry and novels.
The first recorded bridge over the Golden Horn in Istanbul was built during the reign of Justinian the Great in the 6th century, close to the area near the Theodosian Land Walls at the western end of the city.

In 1453, during the Fall of Constantinople, the Turks assembled a mobile bridge by placing their ships side by side across the water, so that their troops could move from one side of the Golden Horn to the other.

Golden Horn Bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1502.
In the years 1502–1503, there were plans to construct the first bridge at the current location. Sultan Bayezid II solicited a design and Leonardo da Vinci, utilizing three well-known geometrical principles, the pressed-bow, parabolic curve and keystone arch, created an unprecedented single span 240 m long and 24 m wide bridge for the Golden Horn, which would have become the longest bridge in the world of that time, had it been constructed. However, the ambitious design was not approved by the Sultan.

A smaller-scale version of Leonardo da Vinci's Golden Horn Bridge was brought to life in 2001 near Oslo, Norway by the contemporary artist Vebjørn Sand, the first civil engineering project based on a Leonardo da Vinci sketch to be constructed. The Leonardo Bridge Project hopes to build the design as a practical footbridge around the world, including the Golden Horn in Istanbul, using local materials and collaborating with local artisans as a global public art project. The Wall Street Journal referred to the Project as a "...logo for the nations.

Another Italian artist, Michelangelo, was also invited to design a bridge for Istanbul. Michelangelo rejected the proposal, and the idea of building a bridge across the Golden Horn was shelved until the 19th century.
In the early 19th century, Mahmud II (1808–1839) had a bridge built a bit further up the waterway, between Azapkapı and Unkapanı. This bridge, known as the Hayratiye (Benefaction in English), was opened on September 3, 1836. The project was carried out by Deputy Lord High Admiral Fevzi Ahmet Paşa using the workers and facilities of the naval arsenal. According to the History of Lutfi, this bridge was built on linked pontoons and was around 500 to 540 m long.
The first Galata Bridge at the mouth of the waterway was constructed in 1845 by Valide Sultan, the mother of Sultan Abdülmecid (1839–1861) and used for 18 years. It was known as the Cisr-i Cedid or New Bridge to distinguish it from the earlier bridge further up the Golden Horn, which became known as the Cisr-i Atik or Old Bridge.[citation needed] This bridge was built of wood. Baedeker's also called it "Sultan Valideh Bridge" during this time.

On the Karaköy side of the bridge, a couplet by poet İbrahim Şinasi was inscribed and stated that the New Bridge was built by Sultan Abdülmecid I. First to pass over the bridge was Sultan Abdülmecid, and the first to pass below it was the French captain Magnan in his ship the Cygne.
For the first three days, crossing the bridge was free. After that, a toll known as mürüriye was paid to the Naval Ministry. Toll-collecting started on November 25, 1845 and the following tolls were collected:
Free: military and law enforcement personnel, fire fighters on duty, clergy,
5 para: pedestrians,
10 para: people with backpacks,
20 para: load-bearing animals,
100 para: horse carriages,
3 para: sheep, goats or other animals
Between 1880-1893, the Galata Bridge and in the background the New Mosque, Istanbul.
The third Galata Bridge, ca. 1892–1893
The "Ertuğrul" cavalry regiment on the third Galata Bridge – painting by Fausto Zonaro for Sultan Abdulhamid II.
Toll was collected until May 31, 1930 by officials in white uniforms standing on both ends of the bridge.

The second bridge
This bridge was replaced by a second wooden bridge in 1863, built by Ethem Pertev Paşa on the orders of Sultan Abdülaziz (1861–1876) during the infrastructure improvement works prior to the visit of Napoleon III to Istanbul.

The third bridge
In 1870, a contract was signed with a French company, Forges et Chantiers de la Mediteranée for construction of a third bridge, but the outbreak of war between France and Germany delayed the project, which was given instead to the British firm G. Wells in 1872. This bridge, completed in 1875, was 480 m long and 14 m wide and rested on 24 pontoons. It was built at a cost of 105,000 gold liras. It was used until 1912, when it was pulled upstream to replace the old Cisr-i Atik Bridge.

The fourth bridge
The fourth Galata Bridge was built in 1912 by the German firm Hüttenwerk Oberhausen AG for 350,000 gold liras. This floating bridge was 466 m long and 25 m wide. It is the bridge, still familiar to many people today, that was badly damaged in a fire in 1992 and towed up the Golden Horn to make way for the current bridge.
The fifth (current) bridge[edit]
Detail of the break in the overhead lines for the trams between one bascule (left) and the fixed part of the bridge. The Süleymaniye Mosque is in the background.

Fishermen on the bridge. The Yeni Cami is in the background.
The fifth Galata bridge was built by the Turkish construction company STFA just a few meters away from the previous bridge, between Karaköy and Eminönü, and completed in December 1994. It was designed and supervised by GAMB (Göncer Ayalp Engineering Company). It is a bascule bridge, which is 490 m long with a main span of 80 m. The deck of the bridge is 42 m wide and has three vehicular lanes and one walkway in each direction. Tram tracks were recently re-added to it, allowing the Istanbul Tram to run from Zeytinburnu, in the suburbs near Atatürk International Airport, to Kabataş, a few blocks before Dolmabahçe Palace.

The rest of the bridge, including the market area on the first floor, opened to common use in 2003.

The Galata Bridge was a symbolic link between the traditional city of Istanbul proper, site of the imperial palace and principal religious and secular institutions of the empire, and the districts of Galata, Beyoğlu, Şişli and Harbiye, where a large proportion of the inhabitants were non-Muslims and where foreign merchants and diplomats lived and worked. As Peyami Safa wrote in his novel, Fatih-Harbiye, a person who went from Fatih to Harbiye via the bridge set foot in a different civilization and a different culture. Apart from its place in fiction, the romantic appearance of the Galata Bridge made it the subject of many paintings and engravings

07/10/2015

The Walls of Istanbul (Constantinople) are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built.

Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, when well-manned, they were almost impregnable for any medieval besieger, saving the city, and the Byzantine Empire with it, during sieges from the Avars, Arabs, Rus', and Bulgars, among others (see Sieges of Constantinople). The advent of gunpowder siege cannons rendered the fortifications vulnerable, but cannon technology was not sufficiently advanced to capture the city on its own, and the walls could be repaired between reloading. Ultimately the city fell from sheer weight of numbers of the Ottoman forces on 29 May 1453 after a six-week siege.

06/10/2015

Sarayburnu (Turkish: Sarayburnu, meaning Palace Point; known in English as the Seraglio Point) is a promontory separating the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara in Istanbul, Turkey. The area is where the renowned Topkapı Palace and Gülhane Park stand. Sarayburnu is included in the historic areas of Istanbul, added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.
The first settlement on the Sarayburnu goes back to Neolithic, c. 6600 BC.The settlement lasted for almost a millennium before being inundated by the rising level of the sea; however, it might have been moved further inland. The artifacts from this settlement recovered during excavations display some of the distinct features of other artifacts found in other excavations in northwestern Turkey.

Another settlement on the Sarayburnu, named Lygos, was founded by Thracian tribes between the 13th and 11th centuries BC, along with the neighbouring Semistra, which Pliny the Elder had mentioned in his historical accounts. Only a few walls and substructures belonging to Lygos have survived to date, near the location where the famous Topkapı Palace now stands. During the period of Byzantium, the Acropolis used to stand where the Topkapı Palace stands today.

In 667 BC ancient Greek settlers from Megara (near Athens) under the command of King Byzas established Byzantium at the Sarayburnu. Earlier, in 685 BC, the Megarans had established Chalcedon (present-day Kadıköy) on the Anatolian shore, across the Bosporus. Actually the oldest settlements in present-day Istanbul are found on the Anatolian side; such as the Fikirtepe mound which dates from the Chalcolithic period (Copper Age), with artifacts dating from 5500-3500 BC. In nearby Kadıköy (ancient Chalcedon), a large port settlement dating from the Phoenicians (which predates the Megaran settlement) has been discovered.

In antiquity there were two natural harbours in the area close to Sarayburnu where the present-day Sirkeci and Eminönü quarters stand (the harbours of Prosphorion and Neorion, which scooped into the coastline of the Golden Horn.) Because of this formation, the point of Sarayburnu was more conspicuous than it is today. In later periods the area was the convergence point for the Sea Walls of the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. In the Byzantine period, the area was known in Greek as Hagios Demetrios.

During the railway construction of the late Ottoman period, in 1871, the city walls of the Sarayburnu area were partially demolished, but they are still intact in some areas - especially close to the Topkapı Palace which was built in the 15th century for the Ottoman Sultans. The notable Gülhane Park is located right next to the palace.

05/10/2015

The Hippodrome of Constantinople (Turkish: Sultanahmet Meydanı, Turkish pronunciation: [sulˌtanahˈmet] or Atmeydanı) was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydanı (Sultan Ahmet Square) in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with a few fragments of the original structure surviving.

The word hippodrome comes from the Greek hippos (ἵππος), horse, and dromos (δρόμος), path or way. For this reason, it is sometimes also called Atmeydanı ("Horse Square") in Turkish. Horse racing and chariot racing were popular pastimes in the ancient world and hippodromes were common features of Greek cities in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras.
Although the Hippodrome is usually associated with Constantinople's days of glory as an imperial capital, it actually predates that era. The first Hippodrome was built when the city was called Bysantium, and was a provincial town of moderate importance. In AD 203 the Emperor Septimius Severus rebuilt the city and expanded its walls, endowing it with a hippodrome, an arena for chariot races and other entertainment.

In AD 324, the Emperor Constantine the Great decided to move the seat of the government from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Nova Roma (New Rome). This name failed to impress and the city soon became known as Constantinople, the City of Constantine. Constantine greatly enlarged the city, and one of his major undertakings was the renovation of the Hippodrome. It is estimated that the Hippodrome of Constantine was about 450 m (1,476 ft) long and 130 m (427 ft) wide. Its stands were capable of holding 100,000 spectators.

The race-track at the Hippodrome was U-shaped, and the Kathisma (emperor's loge) was located at the eastern end of the track. The Kathisma could be accessed directly from the Great Palace through a passage which only the emperor or other members of the imperial family could use. The Hippodrome Boxes, which had four statues of horses in gilded copper on top, stood at the northern end; and the Sphendone (curved tribune of the U-shaped structure, the lower part of which still survives) stood at the southern end. These four gilded horses, now called the Horses of Saint Mark, whose exact Greek or Roman ancestry has never been determined, were looted during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and installed on the façade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice. The track was lined with other bronze statues of famous horses and chariot drivers, none of which survive. The hippodrome was filled with statues of gods, emperors and heroes, among them some famous works, such as a Heracles by Lysippos, Romulus and Remus with their wolf and the Serpent Column of the Plataean tripod. In his book De Ceremoniis (book II,15, 589), the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus described the decorations in the hippodrome at the occasion of the visit of Saracen or Arab visitors, mentioning the purple hangings and rare tapestries.

Throughout the Byzantine period, the Hippodrome was the centre of the city's social life. Huge amounts were bet on chariot races, and initially four teams took part in these races, each one financially sponsored and supported by a different political party (Deme) within the Roman/Byzantine Senate: The Blues (Venetoi), the Greens (Prasinoi), the Reds (Rousioi) and the Whites (Leukoi). The Reds (Rousioi) and the Whites (Leukoi) gradually weakened and were absorbed by the other two major factions (the Blues and Greens).

A total of up to eight chariots (two chariots per team), powered by four horses each, competed on the racing track of the Hippodrome. These races were not simple sporting events, but also provided some of the rare occasions in which the Emperor and the common citizens could come together in a single venue. Political discussions were often made at the Hippodrome, which could be directly accessed by the Emperor through a passage that connected the Kathisma (Emperor's Loge at the eastern tribune) with the Great Palace of Constantinople.

The rivalry between the Blues and Greens often became mingled with political or religious rivalries, and sometimes riots, which amounted to civil wars that broke out in the city between them. The most severe of these was the Nika riots of 532, in which an estimated 30,000 people were killed and many important buildings, such as the second Hagia Sophia Church, were destroyed. The current (third) Hagia Sophia was built by Justinian following the Nika Revolt.

Constantinople never really recovered from its sack during the Fourth Crusade and even though the Byzantine Empire survived until 1453, by that time, the Hippodrome had fallen into ruin. The Ottoman Turks, who captured the city in 1453 and made it the capital of the Ottoman Empire, were not interested in racing and the Hippodrome was gradually forgotten, although the site was never actually built over.

The Hippodrome was used for various occasions such as the lavish and days-long circumcision ceremony of the sons of Sultan Ahmed III. In Ottoman miniature paintings, the Hippodrome is shown with the seats and monuments still intact. Although the structures do not exist anymore, today's Sultanahmet Square largely follows the ground plan and dimensions of the now vanished Hippodrome.
To raise the image of his new capital, Constantine and his successors, especially Theodosius the Great, brought works of art from all over the empire to adorn it. The monuments were set up in the middle of the Hippodrome, the spina. Among these was the Tripod of Plataea, now known as the Serpent Column, cast to celebrate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians during the Persian Wars in the 5th century BC. Constantine ordered the Tripod to be moved from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and set in middle of the Hippodrome. The top was adorned with a golden bowl supported by three serpent heads. The bowl was destroyed or stolen during the Fourth Crusade. The serpent heads were destroyed as late as the end of the 17th Century, as many Ottoman miniatures show they were intact in the early centuries following the Turkish conquest of the city. Parts of the heads were recovered and are displayed at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. All that remains of the Delphi Tripod today is the base, known as the "Serpentine Column".
Another emperor to adorn the Hippodrome was Theodosius the Great, who in 390 brought an obelisk from Egypt and erected it inside the racing track. Carved from pink granite, it was originally erected at the Temple of Karnak in Luxor during the reign of Thutmose III in about 1490 BC. Theodosius had the obelisk cut into three pieces and brought to Constantinople. The top section survives, and it stands today where Theodosius placed it, on a marble pedestal. The obelisk has survived nearly 3,500 years in astonishingly good condition.

Walled Obelisk
In the 10th century the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus built another obelisk at the other end of the Hippodrome. It was originally covered with gilded bronze plaques, but they were sacked by Latin troops in the Fourth Crusade. The stone core of this monument also survives, known as the Walled Obelisk.

Statues of Porphyrios
Seven statues were erected on the Spina of the Hippodrome in honour of Porphyrios, a legendary charioteer in his time who raced for the two parties which were called "Greens" and "Blues". None of these statues have survived. The bases of two of them have survived and are displayed in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Contemporary description[edit]

Ruins of the Hippodrome, from an engraving by Onofrio Panvinio in his work De Ludis Circensibus (Venice, 1600.) The engraving, dated 1580, may be based on a drawing from the late 15th century. The spina that stood at the center of the chariot racing circuit was still visible then; in modern Istanbul, three of the ancient monuments remain.
The area is officially called Sultan Ahmet Square. It is maintained by the Turkish government. The course of the old racetrack has been indicated with paving, although the actual track is some 2 m (6.6 ft) below the present surface. The surviving monuments of the Spina (the middle barrier of the racecourse), the two obelisks and the Serpentine Column, now sit in holes in a landscaped garden.

The German Fountain ("The Kaiser Wilhelm Fountain"), an octagonal domed fountain in neo-Byzantine style, which was constructed by the German government in 1900 to mark the German Emperor Wilhelm II's visit to Istanbul in 1898, is located at the northern entrance to the Hippodrome area, right in front of the Blue Mosque.

The Hippodrome was excavated by the Director of the Istanbul Archeological Museums, archeologist Rüstem Duyuran in 1950 and 1951. A portion of the substructures of the Sphendone (the curved end) became more visible in the 1980s with the clearing of houses in the area. In 1993 an area in front of the nearby Sultanahmet Mosque (the Blue Mosque) was bulldozed in order to install a public building, uncovering several rows of seats and some columns from the Hippodrome. Investigation did not continue further, but the seats and columns were removed and can now be seen in Istanbul's museums. It is possible that much more of the Hippodrome's remains still lie beneath the parkland of Sultanahmet.

The Hippodrome was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 500 lira banknotes of 1953-1976.

02/10/2015

İstiklal Avenue or Istiklal Street (Turkish: İstiklâl Caddesi, French: Grande Rue de Péra, English: Independence Avenue) is one of the most famous avenues in Istanbul, Turkey, visited by nearly 3 million people in a single day over the course of weekends. Located in the historic Beyoğlu (Pera) district, it is an elegant pedestrian street, 1.4 kilometers long, which houses boutiques, music stores, bookstores, art galleries, cinemas, theatres, libraries, cafés, pubs, night clubs with live music, historical patisseries, chocolateries and restaurants.

The avenue, surrounded by late Ottoman era buildings (mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries) that were designed with the Neo-Classical, Neo-Gothic, Renaissance Revival, Beaux-Arts, Art Nouveau and First Turkish National Architecture styles; as well as a few Art Deco style buildings from the early years of the Turkish Republic, and a number of more recent examples of modern architecture; starts from the medieval Genoese neighbourhood around Galata Tower and ultimately leads up to Taksim Square.

A historic tram on İstiklal Avenue
Galatasaray Square is located at approximately the center of the avenue and is home to the oldest secondary school in Turkey: the Galatasaray High School (Galatasaray Lisesi), originally known as the Galata Sarayı Enderun-u Hümayunu (Galata Palace Imperial School).

In the historic Karaköy (Galata) district towards the southern end of the avenue, it is possible to see the world's second-oldest subway station, generally known and referred to as simply Tünel (The Tunnel) which entered service in 1875. Moreover, one of the finest educational institutions established in Turkey, the German High School of Istanbul (Deutsche Schule Istanbul in German, Özel Alman Lisesi in Turkish) is also located near Tünel.

The cosmopolitan avenue is surrounded by an array of historical and politically significant buildings, such as the Çiçek Pasajı (Flower Passage) where small, intimate restaurants and taverns are found; Balık Pazarı (The Fish Market); the Ağa Camii Mosque; the Roman Catholic churches of Santa Maria Draperis and S. Antonio di Padova; the Greek Orthodox Haghia Triada; the Armenian Üç Horan (among many other churches); several synagogues; mosques; academic institutions established by various European nations such as Austria, France, Germany and Italy in the 19th century; and consulates (former embassies before 1923) of several nations including France, Greece, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

A historic tram in front of the Beyoğlu station of Tünel (1875) at the southern end of İstiklal Avenue.

A busy day on İstiklal Avenue
During the Ottoman period, the avenue was called Cadde-i Kebir (Grand Avenue) and was a popular spot for Ottoman intellectuals, also becoming a center for European foreigners and the local Italian and French Levantines who referred to it as Grande Rue de Péra. When 19th-century travelers referred to Constantinople (today, Istanbul) as the Paris of the East, they were mentioning the Grande Rue de Péra (İstiklal Caddesi) and its half-European, half-Asian culture. With the declaration of the Republic on October 29, 1923, the avenue's name was changed to İstiklal (Independence) for commemorating the triumph at the Turkish War of Independence.

In September 1955, during the anti-Greek Istanbul Riots, the Avenue was pillaged in one night, while it was covered with pieces of glass, clothes, smashed white goods, rolled down and burned automobiles and other goods, all belonging to the wrecked shops.

The avenue briefly fell from grace in the 1970s and 1980s, with its old Istanbulite inhabitants moving elsewhere, and its side streets – then stereotyped with their bars and bordellos – being populated by migrants from the rural areas of Anatolia.

However, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, a massive restoration process took place, master-planned and executed by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Beyoğlu Municipality (including the restoration of the historic buildings, new pavements for full pedestrianization, and the reinstallation of the historic trams), bringing the avenue its old charm and popularity. İstiklal Avenue once again became the center of fine arts and leisure in Istanbul, with real estate prices skyrocketing as a result. Numerous new art galleries, bookstores, cafés, pubs, restaurants, shops and hotels were opened. The venues around the avenue became the host of many international art festivals, such as the annual Istanbul Film Festival. İstiklal Avenue is also a popular venue for all sorts of parades, marches, gatherings and protests in the city.

01/10/2015

The Golden Horn (Turkish: Altın Boynuz; Ancient Greek: Χρυσόκερας, Khrysókeras; Latin: Chrysoceras), also known by its modern Turkish name as Haliç, is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey.
Notably falcate and anfractuous, this prominent waterbody is a horn-shaped estuary that joins Bosphorus Strait at the immediate point where said strait meets the Sea of Marmara, thus forming a narrow, isolated peninsula, the tip of which is "Old Istanbul" (ancient Byzantion and Constantinople), and the promontory of Sarayburnu, or Seraglio Point. The Golden Horn geographically separates the historic center of Istanbul from the rest of the city, and forms a natural, sheltered harbor that has historically protected Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other maritime trade ships for thousands of years.

While the reference to a "horn" is understood to refer to the inlet's general shape, the significance of the designation "golden" is more obscure, with historians believing it to refer to either the riches brought into the city through the bustling historic harbor located along its shores, or to romantic artistic interpretations of the rich yellow light blazing upon the estuary's waters as the sun sets over the city. Its Greek and English names mean the same, while its Turkish name, Haliç, simply means "estuary", and is derived from the Arabic word khaleej, meaning "gulf".

Throughout its storied past, the Golden Horn has witnessed many tumultuous historical incidents, and its dramatic vistas have been the subject of countless works of art.
The Golden Horn is the estuary of the Alibeyköy and Kağıthane Rivers. It is 7.5 kilometers (4.66 mi) long, and 750 meters (2,460 ft) across at its widest. Its maximum depth, where it flows into the Bosphorus, is about 35 meters (115 ft).

At present, the Golden Horn is spanned by five bridges. Moving from upstream to downstream, these are as follows:

The first crossing is the Haliç Bridge, completed in 1974, which connects the neighborhoods of Sütlüce and Defterdar.
The second is the now-defunct Eski Galata Bridge, literally Old Galata Bridge, which used to connect the downstream neighborhoods of Karaköy and Eminönü, but was disassembled and relocated upstream between Ayvansaray and Keçeci Piri following extensive damage in 1992 caused by a fire originating in the kitchen of one of the restaurants located on the bridge's lower level. Originally dating back to 1912, the now-retired structure is no longer used for vehicular or pedestrian traffic, but functions as a seasonal outdoor exhibit and event space attached to Haliç Park.
The third is the Atatürk Bridge, aka Unkapanı Bridge, completed in 1940, which connects Kasımpaşa and Unkapanı.
The fourth is the Golden Horn Metro Bridge - a pedestrianized railway crossing, completed in 2014, that extends subway line M2 of the Istanbul Metro across the Golden Horn.
The fifth bridge is the fifth and most current incarnation of Galata Bridge, completed in 1994, that runs between Karaköy and Eminönü.
Archaeological records show a significant urban presence on and around the Golden Horn dating back to at least the 7th century BCE, with smaller settlements going as far back as 6700 BCE as confirmed by recent discoveries of ancient ports, storage facilities, and fleets of trade ships unearthed during the construction works of the Yenikapı subway station and the Marmaray tunnel project.

Indeed, the deep natural harbor provided by the Golden Horn has always been a major economic attraction and strategic military advantage for inhabitants of the area, and the Eastern Roman colonizers that established Nova Roma along its shores, which became, in order, Byzantium, Constantinople, and ultimately, Istanbul, were no different.

The Byzantine Empire had its naval headquarters there, and walls were built along the shoreline to protect the city of Constantinople from naval attacks. At the entrance to the Horn on the northern side, a large chain was pulled across from Constantinople to the old Tower of Galata to prevent unwanted ships from entering. Known among the Byzantines as the Megàlos Pyrgos (meaning "Great Tower" in Greek), this tower was largely destroyed by the Latin Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. In 1348, the Genoese built a new tower nearby which they called Christea Turris (Tower of Christ), now called Galata Tower.

There were three notable times when the chain across the Horn was either broken or circumvented. In the 10th century the Kievan Rus' dragged their longships out of the Bosphorus, around Galata, and relaunched them in the Horn; the Byzantines defeated them with Greek fire. In 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, Venetian ships were able to break the chain with a ram. In 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, having failed in his attempt to break the chain with brute force, instead used the same tactic as the Rus', towing his ships across Galata over greased logs and into the estuary.

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II resettled ethnic Greeks along the Horn in the Phanar (today's Fener). Balat continued to be inhabited by Jews, as during the Byzantine age, though many Jews decided to leave following the takeover of the city. This area was repopulated when Bayezid II invited the Jews who were expelled from Spain to resettle in Balat.

In 1502, Leonardo da Vinci produced a drawing of a single-span 240-metre (790 ft) bridge over the Golden Horn as part of a civil engineering project for Sultan Bayezid II. Leonardo's drawings and notes regarding this bridge are currently displayed at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia in Milan, Italy. While the original design was never executed, the vision of Leonardo's Golden Horn Bridge was resurrected in 2001, when a small footbridge based on Leonardo's design was constructed near Ås in Norway.

Until the 1980s, the Horn was polluted with industrial waste from the factories, warehouses, and shipyards along its shores. It has since been cleaned, and the local fish, wildlife, and flora have been largely restored.

Nowadays, the Golden Horn is settled on both sides, and there are parks along each shore. The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce is also located along the shore, as are several Muslim, Jewish and Christian cemeteries.

Today, the Horn's rich history and natural beauty make it a hugely popular tourist attraction in Istanbul, visited by 10 million international vacationers annually.
The Golden Horn is featured in many works of literature dealing with classical themes. For example, G. K. Chesterton's poem Lepanto contains the memorable couplet "From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun, / And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun."