The Bosphorus - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 462

KANLİCA TO ANADOLU HİSARI
Kanlica has, since the time of Evliya at least, been famous for its
yogurt, the best in the Istanbul area, which it is pleasant to eat in one
of the little restaurants that are to be found around the very attractive,
plane-tree shaded square by the iskele. The village, which is unspoiled
by industry, boasts a mosque of some interest. The mosque, on the far
side of the square, was founded in A.H. 967, or A.D. 1559-60, as the
Arabic inscription over the door tells us, by the vezir Iskender Paşa; it
is a minor work of Sinan. Of the very simplest type, it has a wooden
porch and roof with a flat ceiling; but both porch and roof are clearly
later, indeed modern, reconstructions, for Evliya says that it had a
wooden dome inside. The founder's türbe is nearby.
Between Kanlica and Anadolu Hisarı are the remains of the oldest
yalı on the Bosphorus, that of the Grand Vezir Köprülü Amcazade
Hüseyin Paşa, built about 1698. All that exists of the original house
is the wreck of a once very beautiful room built out on piles over the
sea. The central area has a wooden dome with spacious bays on three
sides of it; a continuous row of low windows in these bays lets in the
cool breezes and gives views of the Bosphorus in all directions. But the
astonishing thing about it was the exquisite and elaborate moulding
and painting of ceiling and walls with arabesques, geometrical
designs, floral garlands, in enchanting colours and in gold; especially
lovely was a long series of panels above the windows each with a vase
of diferent flowers. Towards the beginning of the twentieth century
an attempt to rescue this unique room from ruin was made by the
Society of the Friends of Istanbul, who published a sumptuous album
of hand-gilded and coloured plates with a preface by Pierre Loti and
descriptive text by H. Saladin. Since then, however, the room has
been totally neglected and is now in the last stages of decay. It is said
that a restoration is planned in the near future; one hopes that it is
not already too late to save what is left of this once beautiful and
historic yalı.
ANADOLU HİSARI
We come now to the Anatolian Castle opposite the Rumelian one.
The castle was built by Beyazit I Yıldırım, the Thunderbolt, probably