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Published: March 2nd 2008
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Cement Shoreline
This is a shot of the coast facing one of the clumps of expensive shops in Bebek. Armed with my new camera, I decided to make up for lost time and do some touring nearby. A week ago (right after my camera stopped working) I had gone down to Bebek (which apparently means "bay" in Turkish), a nearby neighborhood in Istanbul. Bebek is generally agreed to be the most expensive area in all of Istanbul, as it has some of the most spectacular views. Bebek has a single main street, which traverses the narrow strip of level ground between the water and the hill/cliff. On the coast-side, the street is lined with alternating clumps of expensive eateries and shops, and long stretches of cement docks, which house a myriad of ships (rowboats, two-masted wooden sailboats, catamarans, luxury yachts). On the cliff-side, there are small mansions and dozens of apartment complexes worth millions because of their unobstructed view of the Bosporus. There is a good ice cream shop near a really long stretch of dock, which has amazing ice cream for 1 YTL/scoop. It's fun to get a cheap (but delicious) ice cream cone and just walk along the cement coastline, looking out at the ships. One thing I was not expecting was the fisherman. Fisherman line the unused
Bebek Mansion
One of the ornate mansions that overlook the beauty of the Bosporus. coast and use deep-sea rods to cast into the Bosporus to catch small fish. It's really an odd sight.
I went to Bebek again on Saturday, March 1st. I wanted to explore it more, and take pictures of some of the stuff that had caught my eye a week ago. Although I took many pictures, I don't think I really captured the essence of Bebek, but that's ok, as I'll be back, so I'll have time to try again.
Bebek lies straight downhill from South Campus, a quick 15 minute jog downhill, or a grueling, unending journey uphill. At one point, the road is at a roughly 45 degree angle, and you have to watch your footing to make sure you done step on a small patch of dirt and slip. The path from campus spits you out in the center of Bebek - to the right is mainly shops and eateries, along with a park, and to the left is mainly the cement shoreline as it approaches Rumalihisari and the Fatih Bridge. (Rumalihisari is the fortification near campus that I had been taking pictures of, and the Fatih Bridge is the one of the two iconic white
Bebek Fishermen
Fishermen line the coast with deep sea rods and cast into the Bosporus catching small fish. It seems to be the activity of choice for most older men in Bebek. suspension bridges spanning the Bosporus, and is most often in my pictures due to its proximity to campus and the unobstructed view. The other bridge is usually behind a hill.)
I spend most of my time going left after reaching Bebek. I took a bunch of boat-related and mansion-related pictures, and then decided to continue walking past the fortress and passed beneath the Fatih Bridge in order to get photos of it from a variety of angles. It is an impressive bridge, and appears to span the Bosporus effortlessly as it gently jumps over the buildings on the European side. The whole trip was over pretty fast, so I decided to backtrack to Rumalihisari and see what it was like.
Rumalihisari was incredible. The main road of Bebek narrows in order to run under the imposing watch of its walls, which overlook the narrowest point in the Bosporus, with an smaller accompanying fortress on the Asian side. It was built over the course of several months in 1452 under the command of Mehmet II (the Conquerer; the same one who was entombed in the Fatih Mosque area) in order to effectively control the Bosporus and cut off Byzantine
Cement Shoreline
This is a shot of the coast facing one of the clumps of expensive shops in Bebek. supply from the Black Sea regions. Although it was the narrowest point of the Bosporus, I originally felt skeptical of its effectiveness to control it, as a bowshot would hardly seem to be able to do much, and I didn't really think that gunpowder technology had advanced enough yet to really be effective, so in my mind, the fortresses were probably used more for support of an Ottoman fleet rather than actual control of the strait. But upon entering the fortress, I realized the folly of my skepticism. While it was true that gunpowder had yet to be utilized in small arms, the principal of a solid bronze cannon, filled with gunpower and a stone, was quite straightforward and easily utilized here. The fortress had displayed about a dozen different cannon that had been housed here, all very long and very recognizable as something that ships would have a hard time dealing with.
The fortress is a "do it yourself" museum. There are several signs around to highlight the engineering aspects of the fortress (the walls here are x meters tall and y meters thick..), but the majority of it is basically self-exploration. The tallest towers and the lowest
Bebek Boat.
A cool older wooden sailing boat in Bebek. storehouses were barred, locked and off limits, but the main walls were open for exploration. Narrow stone steps jutted out from the walls, to provide some help in reaching the top of the walls and low towers, but there were no guard rails, no safety precautions whatsoever, and it was usually a very long drop to the bottom, so one had to be very careful when ascending to or (especially) descending from the battlements. Despite the obvious danger (I wonder how many Ottoman soldiers slipped back in the day), it was an adrenaline rush to be able to climb around this fortress, and explore it on my own. The fortress starts near the water, but moves up the hill so the walls perpendicular to the water at very slanted. The views from up in the back (up on the cliff) are spectacular. I took many pictures, but these were mostly random pictures of excitement; next time I want to go there for a day to get pictures of everything from every angle, or as much as i can. I had planned to go back today (Sunday), but I slept in and realized that I had done none of my homework
Rumalihisari - From the Street
here you can see some of the fusion of old and new in Istanbul - a 15th Century fort next to a busy street in a city with an enormous population. from the previous week, so returning will have to wait until Wednesday when I have a light class load. This Friday I plan on going back to the police station to pick up my residence permit, with the Fatih Mosque in the afternoon and St. Sophia and the Blue Mosque on the weekend. It should be fantastic.
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