Maiden's Tower is located off the coast of Salacak neighborhood in Üsküdar district, at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus. It literally means "Maiden's Tower" in Turkish. The name comes a legend: the Byzantine emperor heard a prophecy telling him that his beloved daughter would die at the age of 18 by a snake. So he decided to put her in this tower built on a rock on the Bosphorus isolated the land thus no snake could kill her.
Today, Maiden's Toweris a very popular and classy restaurant and cafeteria-bar. It offers 360 degree views of the Bosphorus and the old city, especially at night. There are several shuttle boats going to the tower at certain times Kabatas neighborhood on the European side of Istanbul and Salacak neighborhood on the Asian side.
Also called Church of the Holy Wisdom or Church of the Divine Wisdom, an important Byzantine structure in Istanbul and one of the world’s great monuments. It was built as a Christian church in the 6th century ce (532–537) under the direction of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. In subsequent centuries it became a mosque, a museum, and a mosque again.
The original church on the site of the Hagia Sophia is said to have been ordered to be built by Constantine I in 325 on the foundations of a pagan temple. His son, Constantius II, consecrated it in 360. It was damaged in 404 by a fire that erupted during a riot following the second banishment of St. John Chrysostom, then patriarch of Constantinople. It was rebuilt and enlarged by the Roman emperor Constans I.
One of the magnificent ancient buildings of İstanbul is the Basilica Cistern located in the southwest of Hagia Sofia. Constructed for Justinianus I, the Byzantium Emperor (527-565), this big underground water reservoir is called as “Yerebatan Cistern” among the public because of the underground marble columns. As there used to be a basilica in the place of the cistern, it is also called Basilica Cistern.
The cistern is 140 m long, and 70 m wide, and covers a rectangular area as a giant structure. Accessible with 52-step staircase, the Cistern shelters 336 columns, each of which is 9 m high. Erected at 4.80 m intervals one another the columns are composed of 12 rows, each has 28 columns. The case-bay of the cistern is conveyed by the columns through arches.
Mehmet the Conqueror built the first stage of the palace shortly after the Conquest in 1453, and lived here until his death in 1481. Subsequent sultans lived in this rarefied environment until the 19th century, when they moved to the ostentatious European-style palaces they built on the shores of the Bosphorus.Before you enter the palace's Imperial Gate (Bab-ı Hümayun), take a look at the ornate structure in the cobbled square just outside.
This is the rococo-style Fountain of Sultan Ahmet III, built in 1728 by the sultan who so favoured tulips. The main ticket office is in the First Court, just before the gate to the Second Court.
Is one of the highest and oldest towers of Istanbul. 63 meter (206 feet) high tower provides a panoramic view of the old town. It was built in the 14th century by the Genoese colony as part of the defense wall surrounding their district at Galata directly opposite ancient Constantinopolis. They called the tower as "Christea Turris", or "Tower of Christ". The Genoese were involved in trade with the Byzantines and the tower was used for the surveillance of the Harbor in the Golden Horn. by Mehmet II, it served to detect fires in the city.
Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi was the first flying Turk during the Ottoman Empire of the 17th century. He copied bird wings and studied air flows, than jumping the Galata Tower he overflew the Bosphorus and landed at Uskudar district on the Asian side, around 6 kilometers (4 miles) in distance.
The construction of the bazaar began in the mid-17th century under Sultan Mehmed III and was completed by the architect Mustafa Ağa on behalf of Hatice Turhan, the mother of Sultan Mehmed IV. Since the construction of the bazaar, the store rents have been used to maintain the mosque and its social facilities.
The name of the Spice Bazaar (Egyptian Bazaar) is based on the goods, especially the spices that came Egypt and were sold here. Also, the building was originally funded with taxes on imported Egyptian goods. A large part of the around 100 shops consist of traditional spice merchants. In the heyday of the bazaar, it was the last stop for camel caravans traveling the Silk Roads of China, India and Persia.
Although it is the beating heart of the city, the three million people that pass it every day can make it rather challenging to traverse. Although chains and fast food joints are starting to edge out the more old-fashioned shops, there’s still traces of old Istanbul here.
Aside the obvious Istiklal Street shopping opportunities, there are many other Istiklal Street attractions. Look out for historic cinemas (like Atlas, Beyoglu), historical passages (like Hazzopulo, Suriye and Çiçek), churches (St Antoine, Santa Maria), consulate buildings, and innovative art galleries (check out SALT Beyoğlu, Mesher and the Mısır Apartments), as well as stunning examples of 19th century Neo-Classical and Art Nouveau architecture to admire.
Beşiktaş coast area where Dolmabahçe Palace is located in an area that was an important place for the shipping work as a bay of Bosphorus. It’s a natural bay to which the ships have sheltered since the ancient time and it attired the attention of the governors at Byzantium Era. So they built royal palaces around the area.
This area was used as a port for the navy ships and there were also navy ceremonies being organized there. It was later on filled up and then named as Dolmabağçe. The royal people officially lived in the Topkapı Palace but Dolmabahçe Palace was also a good place to visit for them. It was kind of a private garden of the sultan and the members of the royal family.
Çamlıca Hill is located within the borders of Üsküdar district, on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, near the first suspension bridge. Çamlıca, a place with two hills overlooking the Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea, is one of the most favored promenades in Istanbul, and also one of the highest and most charming places in the city. It's divided into two sections as "Büyük Çamlica" and "Kücük Çamlica", meaning "Big" and "Small".
Çamlıca got its name the pine trees in the area (Çam means Pine in Turkish). First settlers turned the entire region into a pine forest, which survived not only the Roman period but also the Byzantines. According to the book of Turkish historian Ismail Hakkı Konyalı, in ancient times both Camlica hills were covered with pine trees so thick that no sunlight could shine through them.
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