Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City Read Online Free PDF Page A

seen from the Galata Bridge, particularly those which stand on the six hills along the Golden Horn. On the First Hill, the ancient acropolis of Byzantium, we see the gardens and pavilions of Topkap ı Saray ı and the great dome of Haghia Sophia, framed by its four minarets. The most prominent monument on the Second Hill is the baroque Nuruosmaniye Camii, while the Third Hill is crowned by the Süleymaniye, surrounded by the clustering domes of its pious foundations. On the foreshore between these two hills we see Yeni Cami, the large mosque which stands at the Stamboul end of the Galata Bridge, and Rüstem Pa ş a Camii, the smaller mosque which is located in the market district just to the west. The Third and Fourth Hills are joined by the Roman aqueduct of Valens; but to see this we must bestir ourselves from our seat on the Galata Bridge and walk some distance up the Golden Horn towards the inner span, the Atatürk Bridge. The Fourth Hill is surmounted by Fatih Camii, the Mosque of the Conqueror, whose domes and minarets can be seen in the middle distance, some way in from the Golden Horn. The mosque of Sultan Selim I stands above the Golden Horn on the Fifth Hill. Far off in the distance we can just see the minarets of Mihrimah Camii, which stands on the summit of the Sixth Hill, a mile inland from the Golden Horn and just inside the Theodosian walls. Across the Golden Horn the skyline is dominated by the huge, conical-capped Galata Tower, the last remnant of the medieval Genoese town of Galata.
    Looking down the Golden Horn to where it joins the Bosphorus and flows into the Marmara we see the fabled Maiden’s Tower, the little islet watchtower which stands at the confluence of the city’s garland of waters. Beyond, on the Asian shore, the afternoon sun is reflected in the windows of Üsküdar, anciently called Chrysopolis, the City of Gold. Farther to the south, out of sight from our vantage point on the Galata Bridge, is the Anatolian suburb of Kad ı köy, the ancient Chalcedon, settled a decade or so before Byzantium. Sipping our tea or rak ı in our café on the Galata Bridge, we rest our eyes once more on the gray and ruined beauty of Stamboul, crowned with imperial monuments on its seven ancient hills. At times like this we can agree with the Delphic oracle, for those who settled across the straits from this enchanting place were surely blind.

     

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From the
Galata Bridge
to Haghia Sophia
     
    The area around the Stamboul end of the Galata Bridge, known as Eminönü, is the focal point of Istanbul’s colourful and turbulent daily life. Throughout the day and early evening a steady stream of pedestrians and traffic pours across the bridge and along the highway that parallels the right bank of the Golden Horn, while an endless succession of ferry-boats sail to and from their piers around and under the Galata Bridge, connecting the centre of the city to its maritime suburbs on the Bosphorus, the Marmara and the Princes’ Isles, as well as to stops on both shores of the Golden Horn itself.
    The quarter now known as Eminönü was during the latter period of the Byzantine Empire given over to various Italian city-states, some of which had obtained trading concessions here as early as the end of the tenth century. The area to the right of the Galata Bridge, where the markets are located, was the territory of the Venetians. The region immediately to the left of the bridge was given over to the Amalfians, and beyond them were the concessions of the Pisans and the Genoese, who also had extensive concessions across the Golden Horn in Galata. These rapacious Italians were as often as not at war with one another or with the Byzantines, though at the very end they fought valiantly at the side of the Greeks in the last defence of the city. After the Conquest the concessions of these Italian cities were effectively ended in Stamboul, although the Genoese in Galata continued to have a measure of autonomy for a century or