Istanbul Guide

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The Asian shore is to the right as the ferry cruises up the strait; Europe is to the left. When you start your trip, watch out for the small island of Kız Kulesi, just off the Asian shore near Üsküdar. One of the city’s most distinctive landmarks, this 18th-century structure has functioned as a lighthouse, quarantine station and restaurant. It also featured in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough . Just before the first stop at Beşiktaş, you’ll pass the grandiose Dolmabahçe Palace (p 149), built on the Eu ropean shore of the Bosphorus by Sultan Abdül Mecit between 1843 and 1854. 1 Beşiktaş to Kanlıca After a brief stop at Beşiktaş, Çırağan Palace (p151 ), once home to Sultan Abdül Aziz and now a luxury hotel, looms up on the left. Next to it on the left is the Four Seasons Hotel; on the right is the long yellow building occupied by the prestigious Galatasaray University. Across the strait on the Asian shore is the Fethi Ahmed Paşa Yalı (Map p162; Kuzguncuk; g 15 from Üsküdar) , a wide white building with a red-tiled roof that was built in the pretty suburb of Kuzguncuk in the late 18th cen tury. The word yalı comes from the Greek word for ‘coast’, and describes the summer residences along the Bosphorus built by Ot toman aristocracy and foreign ambassadors in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, now all protected by the country’s heritage laws. A little further along on your left is the recently restored Ortaköy Mosque (p 150). The mosque’s dome and two minarets are dwarfed by the adjacent Bosphorus Bridge , opened in 1973 on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic. The bridge acquired its now-official name of the Martyrs of July 15 Bridge after the unsuc cessful military coup in July 2016. Under the bridge on the European shore are two huge yalıs: the red-roofed Hatice Sultan Yalı (Map p250; Ortaköy; g 22 & 25E from Kabataş, 22RE & 40 from Beşiktaş, 40, 40T & 42T from Taksim) , once the home of Sultan Murad V’s daughter, Hatice; and the Fehime Sultan Yalı (Map p250; Ortaköy; g 22 & 25E from Kabataş, 22RE & 40 from Beşiktaş, 40, 40T & 42T from Tak sim) , home to Hatice’s sister Fehime. Both are undergoing massive restorations and will be transformed into luxury hotels. On the Asian side is the ornate Beylerbeyi Palace (Beylerbeyi Sarayı; Map p162; % 0212-327 2626; www.millisaraylar.gov.tr; Abdullah Ağa Cad desi, Beylerbeyi; adult//student/child under 7yr Day Trips THE BOSPHORUS

₺20/₺5/free; h 9am-4.30pm Tue, Wed & Fri-Sun Apr-Oct, to 3.30pm Nov-Mar; g 15 from Üsküdar) , a 26-room waterside getaway built in 1865 for Abdül Aziz I (r 1861–76). Designed by Sarkis Balyan, brother of Nikoğos (architect of Dol mabahçe Palace), the baroque-style building delighted both Abdül Aziz and the foreign dignitaries who visited. The palace’s last imperial ‘guest’ was the former sultan Abdül Hamit II, who spent the last years of his life (1913–18) under house arrest here. The pal ace interior features a grand selamlik (cer emonial quarters) and a small but opulent harem. Highlights include a hall featuring a huge marble pool used for cooling during summer, the elaborately painted and gilded sultan’s apartment, the pretty sea-facing re ception rooms of the valide sultan (mother of the sultan), the lavishly decorated blue hall in the selamlik and the dining room with chairs covered in gazelle skin. On the shoreline, look for its whimsical marble bathing pavilions on the shore; one was for men, the other for the women of the harem. Further along on the Asian side, past the small village of Çengelköy, is the imposing Kuleli Military School (Map p162; Çengelköy; g 15, 15E, 15H, 15KÇ, 15M, 15N, 15P, 15ŞN, 15T, 15U from Üsküdar, 15F from Kadıköy) , built in 1860 and immortalised in İrfan Orga’s wonderful memoir Portrait of a Turkish Family . Look out for its two ‘witch hat’ towers. Almost opposite Kuleli on the European shore is Arnavutköy (Albanian Village), which boasts a number of gabled Ottoman era wooden houses and Greek Orthodox churches. On the hill above it are buildings formerly occupied by the American College for Girls. Its most famous alumni was Hal ide Edib Adıvar, who wrote about the years she spent here in her 1926 work The Memoir of Halide Edib . The building is now part of the prestigious Robert College. Arnavutköy runs straight into the glamor ous suburb of Bebek , known for its shopping and chic cafe-bars such as Lucca (p170). It also has the most glamorous Starbucks in the city, right on the water, with a lovely terrace. Bebek’s shops surround a small park and the Ottoman Revivalist–style Bebek Mosque (Map p162; g 22, 22B & 25E from Kabataş, 22RE & 40 from Beşiktaş, 40, 40T & 42T from Taksim) . To the east of these is the ferry dock; to the south is the Egyptian consulate building (Map p162; Bebek; g 22 & 25E from Kabataş, 22RE & 40 from Beşiktaş, 40, 40T & 42T from Taksim) , thought by some to be the work of Italian architect Raimondo D’Aronco. This gorgeous art-nouveau mini-palace was built for Emine