Luxury · 6-hour walk · Istanbul
Dolmabahçe to Ortaköy in six hours
The last sultans' palace on the water, their hilltop park, Ortaköy's mosque under the bridge, the village of Bebek and the fortress at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus.
In the 19th century the sultans left the old Topkapı Palace for new palaces along the European shore of the Bosphorus, and the city's rich followed them. This route walks that shore from the grandest of them, Dolmabahçe, to the old village of Ortaköy, and takes the bus on up the strait to Bebek and the fortress Mehmed II built to cut Constantinople off before he took it.
The route, stop by stop
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Dolmabahçe Palace
The sultans' palace from 1856, with a crystal staircase and a ceremonial hall under a chandelier said to weigh four and a half tonnes. Atatürk died here in 1938, and the clocks are stopped at 9.05.
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Yıldız Park
The wooded hillside that was the palace garden of Abdülhamid II, with pavilions and tea terraces looking down over the strait.
40 min here Walk here → -
Ortaköy Mosque
A small baroque mosque of the 1850s right on the water, with the Bosphorus Bridge above it: one of the most photographed views in the city.
25 min here Walk here → -
Ortaköy square
The waterfront square's stalls sell kumpir, baked potatoes loaded with everything, and its cafés look across to Asia.
40 min here Walk here → -
Bebek
Arrive by bus from the previous stop
The prettiest of the Bosphorus villages, with its bay full of boats, the Egyptian consulate's art nouveau mansion, and the shore path north to the fortress.
25 min here Walk here → -
Rumeli Hisarı
The fortress Mehmed II built in a few months in 1452 at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus, the year before he took Constantinople.
60 min here Walk here →
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