Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Turkish Touring and Automobile Club has now restored
a number of old Ottoman kiosks around the Emirgan gardens
and converted them into cafés known as Pembe (Pink) Köşk, Sarı
(Yellow) Köşk, Beyaz (White) Köşk and the Kir Kahveleri, thus
making this one of the most delightful places on the Bosphorus to
spend an afternoon or early evening enjoying a drink in beautiful
surroundings.
At the northern edge of the village we see the Atlıköşk, the Kiosk of
the Horse, which takes its name from the bronze statue of a horse on
its front lawn. This is the former residence of the late Sakıp Sabancı.
An annexe to the mansion now houses the Sabancı Museum, which
has a distinguished collection of Turkish calligraphy and paintings, as
well as other objects of Turkish, European and Far-Eastern art.
ISTİNYE
Beyond Emirgan comes the deep indentation of the bay of Istinye
which, says Gyllius, “after the Golden Horn must be acknowledged
the largest bay and the safest port of the entire Bosphorus, rich as
this is in bays and ports.” Its Turkish name, Istinye, is a corruption
of the Byzantine, Sosthenion, itself a corruption, according to one
account, of the ancient Leosthenion, from the name of a companion
of Byzas who is said to have settled here; another version says that
the Argonauts erected a statue here in thanksgiving
(Sosthenion)
for
aid given by a winged genius of the place against their enemy on the
opposite shore, King Amycus.
YENİKÖY TO TARABYA
At Yeniköy, the Greek Neapolis (the names have the same meaning,
New Town, in both Turkish and Greek), the Bosphorus turns sharply
north-west. This is an attractive village with seaside restaurants, a
beautiful avenue of plane trees, and handsome yalıs mostly modern
and luxurious. There are three churches in the village, two of them
Greek and the other Armenian Catholic, all of them dating from
the mid-nineteenth century. There is also a synagogue dating from
the 1870s; this is thought to have been endowed by Abraham de
Camondo, the famous banker and philanthropist.
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