Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Genoese, by whose name it is usually known. This castle formed a
pair with Yoros Kalesi on the Asian hill opposite, the much more
considerable remains of which are a dominant feature of the view
from most parts of the upper Bosphorus.
At Rumeli Kavağı, not only the ferry but the public motor road
comes to an end. Anyone wishing to explore the upper Bosphorus
must hire a boat at Sarıyer or Rumeli Kavağı and take to the sea. The
excursion is one of extreme delight for the country is wild, rugged and
desolate, but very beautiful. Now for the first time on the Bosphorus
one finds sandy beaches hidden away in romantic coves; grey herons
haunt the clifs, black cormorants dive into the limpid water, great
clouds of sheerwaters, those “lost souls” of the Bosphorus, skim the
surface of the sea, torn by frequent schools of dolphins. The scene is
still much the same as when Jason and his Argonauts sailed past on
their way to Colchis in quest of the Golden Fleece, and these upper
reaches are particularly rich in memories of that stirring adventure.
Except for the two Byzantine or Genoese castles above Rumeli and
Anadolu Kavağı, the fortifications of the upper Bosphorus all date
either from the end of the eighteenth century or from our own time.
Thus the batteries below the castles at the two Kavaks were built in
1783 by Toussaint and increased in 1794 by Monnier, two French
military engineers employed by Abdül Hamit I and Selim III.
Just beyond Rumeli Kavağı and still accessible by the public road
is Altın Kum, Golden Sands, the first of the sandy beaches, with a
restaurant under a pleasant grove of acacia trees. But beyond this
point we sail along for two or three kilometres below precipitous clifs,
sparsely covered with scrub and uninhabited, nay uninhabitable. At
length one reaches a wide but shallow harbour called Büyük Liman,
anciently the Harbour of the Ephesians; one sees the ruins of a number
of stone buildings, among them a hamam; the beach is sandy and the
valley behind is wooded and attractive, a pleasant place to swim.
After another kilometre or so past even more clifs, one comes to
a strangely shaped and craggy point well named, Garipçe (strange
or curious), or, anciently, Gyropolis, Town of Vultures. This too has
a fortress built in 1773 by the Baron de Tott. Here King Phineus
lived and here he was plagued by the Harpies who seized his food
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