Waterways are everywhere in Istanbul, but perhaps none is more spectacular than the Bosporus, the strait that joins the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea. The mythical explanation for the name of the strait comes from the Greek myth of Io. (One of our former colleagues had a student who thought the character’s name was ‘ten’.) Io was one of the innumerable victims of Zeus’ lust but she resisted his advances. Annoyed, Zeus (or in some versions, his wife Hera) turned Io into a heifer, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Hera added a gadfly for good measure. Tortured by the gadfly, Io wandered the world. When she came to the waterway at the edge of Europe, she crossed over. From this the waters took their name, ‘bous’ meaning ‘ox’ and ‘poros’ meaning ‘strait’: in other words, ‘Oxford’!
The Bosporus is 19 miles (31 km) long, and 2,300 feet (700 m) across at its narrowest point. The land on one side is Europe, on the other Asia: Istanbul is the only city in the world that spans two continents. The Bosporus is an international shipping lane, and at all hours you can see cargo boats and oil tankers plying its waters (not to mention cruise ships). There are also many commuter boats: a number of Istanbullus live on one side and work on the other, but people go back and forth for other reasons as well. And there are tour-boats galore, especially in summer.
We took one of these tour boats a few weeks ago, when John’s sister and her partner were visiting. The cruises are of various length: one or two hours or most of the day. The last takes you all the way to the Black Sea and back. Some tours are non-stop, others make a break so you can see some of the monuments. We didn’t do the whole Bosporus, opting instead for a leisurely two-hour cruise. Given Istanbul traffic, it took almost as long to get from the hotel to the harbour! (We may exaggerate slightly.) We include here just a few highlights.
One of the first things you see is the Dolmabahçe Mosque, a tiny gem with beautiful arching windows. It sits just next to the Dolmabahçe Palace, which makes a spectacular impression as you sail by. Sultan Abdüı Mecit built it in the 19th century, having decided to move from Topkapı Palace on the other side of the Golden Horn. The Ottoman empire was already in decline, and he had to finance the palace with loans from foreign banks. The palace is opulent but (at least to our eyes) somewhat garish. It does contain, however, the bedroom in which Atatürk died at 9:05 a.m. on 10 November 1938. All the clocks in the palace read 9:05, always.
The Bosporus bridge (top photo) was built in the 1970s, and its graceful arch is 210 feet (64 m) above the sea. Our guide told us that you used to be able to walk across it, but there were so many suicides that they had to close it to pedestrian traffic. Once a year, however, they open up the bridge for a day and people can walk across it. Alas, that won’t be while we’re here.
You continue to pass by some lovely neighbourhoods, and then a little way further up you come to the Rumeli fortress. Mehmet the Conqueror built it in 1452 as a first step in his conquest of Constantinople. He built it at the narrowest point of the Bosporus so that he could constrict sea traffic intending to bring supplies to the city.
On the way back, coming down the Asian side, we did see a number of beautiful houses with lovely patios and what we assume are spectacular views of the water. Given Istanbul’s generally low cost of living, we wondered if one of these might be in our future. Alas, our guide told us that these houses sell in the millions (of dollars, not liras). Not surprising. Then again, maybe in the future we will rent one for a few months.
