Istanbul — Cruising the Bosporus and the Golden Horn

You’ll see a lot in Istanbul if you just take one of the many tour boats traversing the Bosporus and the Golden Horn. The Bosporus (also spelled Bosphorus) is a strategic strait of vital importance. It separates not only the Mediterranean (via the Aegean and Marmara seas) from the Black Sea, but also Europe from Asia.

Ursula and I have done this voyage before, so we knew to shop around for the best price. As the boat gets closer to sailing, the fare tends to go down. Tour boats accumulate near the south end of the Galata Bridge, on both the east and west side of the bridge. We embarked on our boat east of the bridge, and disembarked to the west. As for the Galata, it also demarks a separation of sorts — the Golden Horn from the Bosporus. So, let’s head on out, shall we?

As you’ll see on this trip, the Blue Mosque is not the only six-minaret mosque in Istanbul. Here is the larger and much newer (completed in 2019) Çamlıca Mosque located high up on the slopes of Çamlıca Hill on the Asian side of the Bosporus:

This next image captures both the Hagia Sophia (current building completed in 537; originally as a Greek Orthodox church) and the Blue Mosque (completed in 1609):

There is a lot of traffic on this narrow waterway as you can see in these images:

Along the journey you will see the immense Bosphorus Bridge (officially the 15 July Martyrs Bridge). Upon its completion in 1973 it was the fourth longest suspension bridge in existence.

Along the way you’ll pass many interesting structures, such as the Küçüksu Pavilion built in 1857:

Here’s a very interesting photo subject known as the Ortaköy Mosque, built around 1855:

Being such a vitally strategic strait, the Bosporus obviously warranted defense. And on this cruise you’ll see a medieval Ottoman Empire fortress built for just that purpose. This is the Rumelihisarı Fortress built in 1452:

We’ll return to this Bosporus boat tour on Wednesday, but until then I’ll leave you with two final images:

Here’s an interesting view of the Anadoluhisarı Fort (1394) and typical yali (waterfront) mansions on the Asian side of the Bosporus:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)