What to See on the Bosphorus?
During a Bosphorus cruise tour in Istanbul, you will see many monumental buildings and a great nature. It's often hard to choose the best option since Istanbul offers you so many different things to do at the same time. We picked 6 hotspots for you to better understand the culture and nature of the Bosphorus.
1. Maiden’s Tower
One of the symbols of Istanbul, Maiden’s Tower is a beautiful remnant from the Byzantine Empire. Although destroyed and burnt many times throughout its history, the story behind the tower was perhaps the reason to rebuild it again and again. What was that story then?
Maiden's Tower from a Bosphorus Cruise Tour
2. Dolmabahçe Palace
This 19th Century Ottoman palace is one of the most important monuments you will see during a classic Bosphorus cruise tour. The administrative center of the Ottoman empire from 1856 to 1887, this palace is a superb example of Western-influenced luxurious 19th century architecture in Istanbul. Ordered by the Sultan Abdülmecid I and realized by the Armenian Balyan brothers, this palace was a mixture of Baroque and Rococo elements with a huge usage of gold and crystal. During the building process of the palace, over 100 kg of gold were used just for the decoration of the palace. The total cost of the palace is estimated as 35 tones of gold, which is roughly 2 billion US dollars today. This big cost was perhaps one of the reasons of the collapse of the Ottoman economy by the end of the 19th century.
The palace is also home to a painting museum today, in which 202 oil paintings are on display. 23 paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky, Russian romantic painter and the court painter of the Ottoman palace, are an important part of the collection. Works of other orientalist painters like Jean-Léon Gérôme, Fausto Zonaro, Gustave Boulanger, as well as the works of Turkish painters like Osman Hamdi Bey, Halil Pasha and Osman Nuri Pasha are also on display.
Dolmabahce Palace from the Bosphorus
Another importance of the palace is that it witnessed the death of Türkiye’s founding leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on 10 December 1938. Although he founded the Turkish Republic in Ankara, he used this palace as a summer residence, especially in the 1930s. The room in which he died is still displayed as “Atatürk’s Room” today.
Dolmabahce Palace Interior
3. Yıldız Park
Situated just above the Ciragan Palace in the Besiktas district, Yıldız Park is a green paradise in the center of a hellish metropolitan city. Today it’s used as a public park, however when it’s created in the 19th century, it was an imperial garden. Surrounded by several pavilions on the top, the park shows the rich flora of Istanbul. Magnolia, bay leaves, Judas trees, silver limes and horse-chestnuts are some of the examples of the vegetation that we find in the park. It’s highly recommendable to see this park after your Bosphorus tour since you can get some fresh Istanbul air and eat a lunch or dinner with the company of the green of the park and the blue of the Bosphorus.
4. Egypt's Consulate General Building
This waterside mansion is one the most beautiful examples of civic architecture in the Bosphorus. Built in 1902 by the Italian architect Raimondo d’Aronco in the Art Nouveau style, the mansion was owned by the only women pasha of the Ottoman Empire, Emine Valide Pasha. She was the mother of the Khedive (a special status that was given by the Ottomans to the ruler of the autonomous Egypt) Abbas Hilmi Pasha.
Sultan Abdülhamid II admired this lady and gave her this mansion as a present, with the title “Pasha”. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1920s, Emine Valide Pasha decides to gift this palace to the newly founded republic. She writes a letter to the government, but in the response from the government, she is addressed only as Ms. Emine from Bebek district. All the titles from the Ottoman Empire were removed in the new secular republic. This frustrates her and she decides to gift the mansion to the Egyptian government instead. The only condition she asked was the usage of the mansion as the consulate building of Egypt.
Egypt's Consulate General Building
5. Rumeli Fortress
This Ottoman fortress was one of the key places of the conquest of Istanbul by Mehmed II in 1453. Built between 1451 and 1452, the main goal to build this fortress was to cut the military and logistical support to the Byzantine Empire, who was squeezed into the historical peninsula, or Fatih (meaning "The Conquerer", with reference to Mehmed II) district as it’s called today. The reason it was built in this location was that it was the narrowest point of the Bosphorus, with only 660 meters (2,170 ft) width. If you end your Bosphorus cruise tour here, it’s a good opportunity to take a short walk up the hill to see the Bosphorus within the mighty walls of this historical fortress.
Narrowest point of Bosphorus, Rumeli Fortress on left
6. Beylerbeyi Palace
On the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus, you will see a palace similar to Dolmabahçe but a much smaller and less luxurious version of it. Built between 1861-1856 as a summer residence by Sultan Abdulaziz, this palace was historically important as a very luxurious prison for the Sultan Abdulhamid II. Reigned between 1876-1909, Abdulhamid II was the last sultan that exerted real power during a long period. He tried to stop the land losses and keep the empire alive, however it was a lost case. He came to power with the promise of bringing a constitutional monarchy, and he did so until consolidating his power. He shut the parliament in 1878 and built a censorship regime step by step. In 1909, people were sick of it, so a group of soldiers stepped in and overthrew his government. He tried to resist but it was too late. What is called “Action Army”, in which Ataturk, the future founder of the Turkish republic, was a part of, conveyed Abdulhamid into captivity first in Thessaloniki, and later when it fell to the Greek, to this Beylerbeyi Palace.
Beylerbeyi Palace