Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City (72 page)

THE ASIAN SHORE OF THE UPPER BOSPHORUS

We now cross the Bosphorus and sail down the Asiatic coast. Curiously enough the Asian shores of the upper Bosphorus are very imperfectly known and seem to have been rarely visited even by the few authors who write about them. The only safe guide is Gyllius, for he alone appears to have explored the region in detail. Even Gyllius’ account, however, is not altogether free from difficulties, for he never gives the Turkish names of places in this region, perhaps because in his time they didn’t yet have any. Nevertheless, there are four places in his narrative which can be identified with certainty; the Rhebas River, the Promontorium Ancyraeum, the Promontorium Coracium and the Fanum Jovis; and from these the others can be worked out. The Rhebas still retains a version of its ancient name: Riva or Irva Deresi; it is a river that flows into the Black Sea about four kilometres beyond the mouth of the Bosphorus, and just beyond it is the great table-like rocky islet in the sea which he calls Colonean but is now known as E
ş
ek Adas
ı
, Donkey Island. Riva is very attractive and picturesque with its Genoese castle at the end of a long sandy beach; it is a fine place to swim and picnic.

The Ancyraean Cape is Yum Burnu, Cape of Good Omen; as its hopeful name might imply, it is just at the mouth of the Bosphorus. In Gyllius’ time it was called Cape Psomion; it was here that Jason took aboard a stone anchor for the Argos, hence its ancient name of Ancyraean. The reef or rock which has the best claim to be the Asian Cyanean stands immediately under the southern cliff face of Yum Burnu and is thus described by Gyllius, a description which is perfectly applicable to this day: “The reef is divided into four rocks above water which, however, are joined below; it is separated from the continent by a narrow channel filled with many stones, by which as by a staircase one can cross the channel with dry feet when the sea is calm; but when the sea is rough waves surround the four rocks into which I said the reef is divided. Three of these are low and more or less submerged, but the middle one is higher than the European rock, sloping up to an acute point and roundish right up to its summit; it is splashed by the waves but not submerged and is everywhere precipitous and straight.”

The bay to the south of Yum Burnu is now called Kabakoz Liman
ı
, the Harbour of the Wild Walnuts; in Gyllius’ time it was known as the Bay of Haghios Sideros (that is, St. Anchor – the half-remembered story of the Argonautic anchor had given rise in the minds of the medieval Greeks to an apocryphal holy man!). On the south this bay is bounded by a point not named by Gyllius but nowadays called Anadolu Feneri Burnu, after the lighthouse (
fener)
on the promontory above. Below the lighthouse a village of the same name clings perilously to the cliff. Just south of this is the bay which Gyllius calls Ampelodes, now Çakal Liman
ı
, the Bay of Jackals, fringed by savage and rocky precipices. The next promontory beyond this, unnamed by Gyllius, is now called Poyraz Burnu. (In Turkish
Poyraz is
the fierce north-east wind which howls down the Bosphorus in winter; its name is a cor ruption of Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind.) On Poyraz Burnu, just opposite Garipçe and like it strangely shaped, is a fortress built in 1773 by the Baron de Tott, and another small village. The long sandy beach to the south is now known as Poyraz Bay; the Greeks of Gyllius’ time called it Dios Sacra, “because, I suppose, there was once an altar here either of Jove or of Neptune, the other Jove.” This is one of the most pleasant places on the Bosphorus to swim and spend a leisurely afternoon. This bay is bounded on the south by Fil Burnu, Elephant Point, called in Gyllius’ time Coracium, Rooky, “because the Greeks of this age say that ravens are wont to build their nests there.” The long stretch of concave coast between here and Anadolu Kava
ğ
ı
is hardly to be described as a bay, so rugged and precipitous is it. It is now called Keçili Liman, Goats’ Bay, and we have seen not only goats and sheep but even cows grazing on its rather barren slopes.

We now come to Gyllius’ Fane of Jove, by which he means the temple of Zeus Ourious, Zeus of the Favouring Wind, and the Hieron or holy precinct where there were shrines of the Twelve Gods. Keçili Liman is bounded on the south by a cape still known by a version of its ancient name, Yoros or Yeros Burnu, doubtless from Ourious. The temple or temples were founded by Phrixos, evidently on a “stop-over” while the winged ram with the golden fleece was flying him towards Colchis. Another version is that the shrines were founded by Jason on his return journey; but we must refer our readers to Gyllius’ lengthy and erudite discussion of the pros and cons: he did like his mythology to make sense! At all events, the Hieron must have been somewhere near the site now occupied by the so-called Genoese Castle. Like the opposite castle above Rumeli Kava
ğ
ı
, this one is not really Genoese but Byzantine, as is shown by various Greek inscriptions still to be found in the walls. About the middle of the fourteenth century both castles were taken over by the Genoese who assumed responsibility for the defence of the northern approaches to Constantinople; they may have repaired and extended the fortifications. Gyllius rather oddly describes this castle as small though it is in fact by far the largest fortress on the Bosphorus, almost twice the area of Rumeli Hisar
ı
; doubtless he was thinking not of the long surrounding walls but only of the citadel itself, probably the only part still inhabited in his day. Evliya tells us that Beyazit I built a mosque there and that Fatih Mehmet restored and garrisoned it.

ANADOLU KAVA
Ğ
I TO BEYKOZ

Below the castle to the south is the village of Anadolu Kava
ğ
ı
, the first village of any size on the Asiatic shore and the last stop on this side of the Bosphorus ferry. The fortifications here, like those at Rumeli Kava
ğ
ı
, were built in 1783 by Toussaint and increased in 1794 by Monnier. To the south of the village, above the capes of Macar and Sütlüce, is the hill now known as Yu
ş
a Tepesi, Hill of Joshua, though the Joshua in question seems not to have been Judge of Israel but a local Muslim saint. The hill, except for Çaml
ı
ca the highest on the Bosphorus – over 200 metres – was anciently called the Bed of Hercules, but is better known to Europeans as the Giant’s Grave. This is the place of which Byron wrote:

The sight is grand indeed, for one can see almost the entire course of the Bosphorus from the Black Sea to the Marmara. On top of the hill is an enormous “grave” some 12 metres long: it was a very large giant evidently.

Opposite Büyükdere the coast forms a long shallow bay with rather dangerous sandbanks in the sea and a rugged and inhospitable coast-line. At Selvi Burnu, Poplar Point, the coast turns east to the charming valley of the Tokat Deresi. Here Fatih himself built a kiosk and so also later did Süleyman, a place described by Gyllius as a “royal villa shaded by woods of various trees, especially planes”; he goes on to mention the landing stairs, “by which the King, crossing the shallow shore of the sea, disembarks into his gardens.” It is from these landing stairs that the place gets its modern name, Hünkâr Iskelesi, the Emperor’s Landing Place, which in turn gave its name to the famous treaty that was signed here in 1833 between Russia and the Sublime Porte. The present little palace was only built in the middle of the nineteenth century by the Armenian architect Sarkis Balyan; it is now used as a hospital, but is still shaded by a lovely grove of plane trees.

The large village of Beykoz, Prince’s Walnut, is still extremely pretty and rural in spite of several large factories that have been erected in the neighbourhood. Here, Dionysius, Gyllius and Evliya agree, is the one place in the Bosphorus where swordfish are caught, and Evliya gives an entertaining account of the method:

There is still a dalyan at Beykoz that is used to catch different sorts of fish, though no longer the swordfish. The modern method of catching a swordfish is to harpoon it from a rowboat while it naps on the surface of the water.

Gyllius is at pains to show that Beykoz was the home of the savage Amycus, king of the no less savage Bebryces. He insisted on boxing with any stranger who landed on his coast and, since he was the son of Poseidon and the best boxer in the world, he always killed his opponent. At last, however, he met his match in one of the Argonauts, Polyduces (Pollox), son of Zeus and Leda, who was even better than he and killed him. The grave of King Amycus was pointed out in antiquity and it is rather strange, as Lechevalier remarks, that Gyllius failed to identify it with the Giant’s Grave. On the spot where King Amycus was killed there grew up an
insana laurus
, an insane bay-tree, which resembled Banquo’s “insane root which takes the reason prisoner.”

Beykoz has a very extraordinary çe
ş
me in the public square. “This fountain,” says the
Hadika
, “has not its equal in beauty in all the villages of the Bosphorus.” It forms a sort of domed and columned loggia, very pretty indeed, and quite unlike any other Bosphorus fountain; its inscription dates it to A.H. 1159 (A.D. 1746) and the
Hadika
says it was built under the superintendence of one Ishak Aga, inspector of the customs.

BEYKOZ TO KANL
İ
CA

South of Beykoz at Incir Köyü, Figtree Village, is the charming valley of Sultaniye Deresi, where Beyazit II established extensive gardens. A little farther on is Pa
ş
abahçe, the Pashas Garden, so called from the palace and gardens established here by Hezarpare Ahmet Pa
ş
a, Grand Vezir under Murat IV; its mosque was built in 1763 by Mustafa III. The village now manufactures glass as Beykoz used to do, and as at Beykoz, various factories have been erected here without, however, entirely destroying its attractiveness. About Çubuklu, the next village to the south, Evliya tells an amusing story: “Beyazit II, having brought his son Selim I from Trebizond to Constantinople, gave him in this place in a fit of anger eight strokes with a cane
(çubuk)
, which eight strokes were prophetic of the years of his reign. At the same time, he said to him, ‘Boy don’t be angry, these eight strokes shall fructify during eight years of reign.’ Selim stuck the dry cane into the ground, praying to heaven that it might strike root and bear fruit. The
Ş
eyh Kara
Ş
emseddin and Beyazit himself said, Amen;’ the cane began to take root and even now bears cornels, five of which weigh a drachma.”

The village was anciently called Eirenaion, Peaceful, and had a very famous monastery founded in 420 by St. Alexander for his order of Akoimetai, the Unsleeping, who prayed in relays day and night. Now it has gasoline installations, but is still in a very beautiful and fruitful valley.

On the hill above the village is the palace of the Khedive of Egypt with its distinctive tower, a characteristic landmark on this part of the Bosphorus; it was built by Abbas Halim Pa
ş
a, the last Khedive (that is, hereditary Viceroy), about 1900, and for a palace of that date has considerable charm. Its western façade overlooking the Bosphorus is semicircular with a handsome marble-columned porch and a semicircular hall within; the trees have grown up too much and spoil the outlook from here, but the upper floor, especially the tower room and a charming loggia on the roof, command some of the finest views on the Bosphorus. The Turkish Touring and Automobile Club has restored the mansion and redecorated it superbly in its original Art Nouveau style; it now serves as a luxury hotel and restaurant.

KANL
İ
CA TO ANADOLU H
İ
SARI

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 Pa
ş
a; 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 founders türbe is nearby.