Up the Golden Horn to Eyüp - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 369

18
Up the
Golden Horn to Eyüp
Eyüp, a village far up the Golden Horn, had in the nineteenth
century the reputation of being wildly romantic and picturesque.
Surrounded on two sides by high hills covered with groves of cypress
trees and turbaned tombstones, commanding magnificent views of
both shores of the Golden Horn, it was a peaceful backwater devoted
to death and religion. The modern world in its most dreary form of
shabby factories and warehouses and cheap housing developments
has unfortunately caught up with it and is investing it on all sides,
though the view down the Golden Horn is still romantic at sunset.
Nevertheless, Eyüp itself has so far resisted the worst encroachments
of the modern world and it contains some of the most interesting as
well as some of the most sacred relics of Ottoman piety; of all the
suburbs of Istanbul it is the one which most repays a visit. The best
way of reaching Eyüp is by ferry from the Galata Bridge, particularly
now that new and more comfortable ferries have been put into
service. The journey is pleasant and afords an opportunity of viewing
from a distance the villages and districts on the way. Alternatively
one can take a taxi, stopping en route at a number of the interesting
monuments on the north shore of the Golden Horn above the
Atatürk Bridge, which we will visit on this itinerary.
The Golden Horn (Halıç or Estuary in Turkish) has become badly
polluted in the past century, although a vigorous efort is now being
made to clean up the Horn and its shores. The Golden Horn is an
inlet of the Bosphorus, stretching north-west for some 11 kilometres
from Saray Point, with an average width of about 400 metres. At its
northern end two little streams flow into the Horn, Alibey Suyu on
the west and Kâğıthane Suyu on the east; they were once known to
Europeans as the Sweet Waters of Europe. For centuries the charming