Üsküdar and the Princes’ Islands - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 382

Tower. This has vanished, as have all other traces of Byzantine
Chrysopolis.)
During the Ottoman Empire several members of the royal family,
particularly the Sultan Valides, adorned Üsküdar with splendid
mosques and pious foundations, most of which are still to be seen
there today. Many great and wealthy Osmanlıs built their mosques,
palaces and konaks there too, preferring the quieter and more serene
environment of Üsküdar to the tumult of Stamboul. Time was, and
not so long ago either, when Üsküdar had a charmingly rustic and
rural atmosphere reminiscent of Ottoman days. Traces of this still
remain, although modern progress is fast destroying old Üsküdar, as
it is so much else in this lovely city.
We can reach Üsküdar either by passenger ferry from the Galata
Bridge or by the smaller boats from Kabataş on the European shore
of the lower Bosphorus. Either way we land at the iskele beside
Iskele Meydanı, the great seaside square of Üsküdar, much of which
occupies the site of the ancient harbour of Chrysopolis. In Ottoman
days it was known as the Square of the Falconers and was the rallying
place for the Sürre-i-Hümayun, the Sacred Caravan that departed
for Mecca and Medina each year with its long train of pilgrims and
its sacred white camel bearing gifts from the Sultan to the Şerif of
Mecca.
ISKELE CAMİİ
The ferry-landing is dominated on the left by a stately mosque on a
high terrace; it takes its name, Iskele Camii, from the ferry-landing
itself. The mosque was built in 1547-8 by Sinan for Mihrimah Sultan,
daughter of Süleyman the Magnificent and wife of the Grand Vezir
Rüstem Paşa. The exterior is very imposing because of its dominant
position high above the square and its great double porch, a curious
projection from which covers a charming fountain. The interior is
perhaps less satisfactory, for the central dome is supported by three
instead of the usual two or four semidomes; this gives a rather truncated
appearance which is not improved by the universal gloom. Perhaps it
was the gloominess of this building which made Mihrimah insist on
floods of light when, much later, she got Sinan to build her another