Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
village; this was erected in the mid-seventeenth century and restored
in 1972. There is also an Armenian church dedicated to St. Santuht;
the present building was erected in 1856, but the original church
may go back to the time of Mehmet the Conqueror.
FATİH MEHMET KÖPRÜSÜ
Fatih Mehmet Köprüsü, the second Bosphorus Bridge, spans the strait
just above the two fortresses of Rumeli Hisarı and Anadolu Hisarı,
the same place Darius constructed his bridge of boats in 512 B.C.
The new bridge opened in 1988, exactly 2,500 years after Darius first
spanned these straits between Asia and Europe. The palatial seaside
mansion just before the bridge is the Zeki Paşa Yalısı. This is believed
to have been built by the French architect Alexandre Vallaury in the
last quarter of the nineteenth century.
BALTALİMAN AND EMİRGAN
From Rumeli Hisarı onwards the Bosphorus, even on the European
side, becomes more and more rural, a succession of picturesque
villages following one another with wider and wider spaces of open
country between. At Baltaliman, which comes next, there is a long
and fertile valley watered by a perpetual stream and flanked by
a long avenue of plane trees. Contiguous is Emirgan, named after
that Persian prince, Emirgüne who surrendered the town of Erivan
to Murat IV without a battle. Emirgüne later became the Sultan's
favourite in drinking and debauchery and was rewarded by the gift of
a palace in this village. here are still the remains here of an ancient
yalı, parts of it possibly going back to Emirgüne's time, but mostly
built later by a Şerif of Mecca, Abdullah Paşa. The Şerifler Yalısı, as
it is now called, has recently been restored. The village square is very
picturesque, shaded by plane trees beneath which throngs of people
are continually imbibing cofee which the excellence of the local
water makes particularly delicious. Beside the square stands a baroque
mosque, partly of wood, built in 1781-2 by Sultan Abdül Hamit I. It
consists of a large almost square room curiously unsymmetrical, and
its decor is quite elegant in its baroque way. Just above the village are
the famous tulip gardens of Emirgan, well worth a visit in spring.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search