Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
21
he Lower Bosphorus'
European Shore
We will begin this tour where the last one ended, at the Karaköy end
of the Galata Bridge. There are few monuments of great importance
along this stretch; nevertheless it makes a pleasant and interesting
stroll.
Before we begin, we might say a word or two about the Galata
Bridge, where we have begun or ended so many of our strolls through
Istanbul. The present bridge was completed in 1992, replacing an
earlier bridge dating from 1910, which now rests unused between
Ayvansaray and Hasköy. The central section of the bridge opens at
four o'clock each morning to permit the passage of shipping to that
part of the Golden Horn between the two bridges. (It is also opened
occasionally at times of civic disturbance to isolate Stamboul from
the rest of the city.) The first bridge at this point was built in 1845
by Bezmialem Valide Sultan, mother of Sultan Abdül Mecit; it was of
wooden construction and quite pretty, as we see from the old prints.
YERALTI CAMİ
Leaving Karaköy we begin walking along the seaside road, which
is always bustling with pedestrians rushing to and from the ferry
station. About 200 metres along, past the ferry pier, we turn left and
then left again at the next street. A short way along on our right
we come to the obscure entrance to Yeraltı Cami, the Underground
Mosque. This is a strange and sinister place. The mosque is housed in
the low, vaulted cellar or keep of a Byzantine tower or castle which is
probably to be identified with the Castle of Galata. This was the place
where was fastened one end of the chain which closed the mouth of
the Golden Horn in times of siege. Descending into the mosque, we
find ourselves in a maze of dark, narrow passages between a forest of
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