The View from the Bridge - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 1

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1The View
from the Bridge
A poet writing 14 centuries ago described this city as being
surrounded by a garland of waters. Much has changed since then,
but modern Istanbul still owes much of its spirit and beauty to the
waters which bound and divide it. There is perhaps nowhere else
in town where one can appreciate this more than from the Galata
Bridge, where all tours of the city should begin. There are other places
in Istanbul with more panoramic views, but none where one can
better sense the intimacy which this city has with the sea, nor better
understand how its maritime situation has inluenced its character
and its history. So the visitor is advised to stroll to the Galata Bridge
for his first view of the city. But you should do your sight-seeing there
as do the Stamboullus, seated at a teahouse or café on the lower level
of the Bridge, enjoying your keyif over a cup of tea or a glass of rakı,
looking out along the Golden Horn to where it meets the Bosphorus
and the Sea of Marmara.
Istanbul is the only city in the world which stands upon two
continents. The main part of the city, which is located at the south-
eastern tip of Europe, is separated from its suburbs in Asia by the
incomparable Bosphorus. The Golden Horn then divides the
European city into two parts, the old imperial town of Stamboul
on the right bank and the port quarter of Galata on the left, with
the more modern residential districts on the hills above Galata and
along the European shore of the lower Bosphorus. Stamboul itself
forms a more or less triangular promontory bounded on the north
by the Golden Horn and on the south by the Sea of Marmara, the
ancient Propontus. At Saray Point, the apex of this promontory, the
Bosphorus and the Golden Horn flow together into the Marmara,
forming a site of great beauty. So it must have appeared to Jason and