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the sipahi's family, his own tomb being, most unusually, in the sebil
itself; beyond the graveyard there was once a small mektep which has
not been restored. The whole is handsomely carved and decorated
with various marbles. This poor little complex has been several times
demolished and re-erected in slightly diferent places; it still remains
incompletely restored.
We now come to Dolmabahçe, where Gümüşsuyu Caddesi passes
the main football stadium in the city and joins the Bosphorus road.
Just before this intersection one comes to a baroque mosque on the
seaside, with a clock-tower of similar style at the far end of a terrace to
the north, beyond which is Dolmabahçe Palace. Dolmabahçe Camii,
begun by Bezmialem Valide Sultan, was finished in 1853 by her
son Abdül Mecit. Like the neighbouring palace, it was designed by
Nikoğos Balyan, a grandson of the Kirkor whom we have already met
as architect of the Nusretiye. He came at a bad period and it is only
with difficulty that one can admire any of his buildings. The great
cartwheel-like arches of this mosque seem particularly disagreeable;
but the two very slender Corinthian minarets, one at each end of the
little palace-like structure that precedes the mosque, have a certain
charm. The baroque clock-tower to the north of the mosque was
erected by Nikoğos Balyan in 1854; it is made of cut stone and has a
height of 27 metres, making it one of the most prominent landmarks
on the European shore of the lower Bosphorus.
DOLMABAHÇE PALACE
We now come to Dolmabahçe Sarayı, the largest and grandest by far
of the imperial palaces on the Bosphorus. The name means filled-in
garden, for this was once an inlet of the Bosphorus and a harbour
before it was filled in to create a royal park, a process begun by Ahmet
I and completed by Osman II. A series of kiosks and seaside pavilions
were later built in the park by the royal family, eventually evolving into
a palace with a great Hall of the Divan for meetings of the state council.
Mahmut II was the first sultan to make Dolmabahçe his principal
residence, finding the palace on the Bosphorus more comfortable
and agreeably situated than the crowded confines of Topkapı Sarayı.
Abdül Mecit decided to build a much larger and more luxurious
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