Kartal Meydanı ve İskelesi

Kartal Square and its pier are the gate to the sea of the old district centre on the Marmara coast of the Anatolian side. This flat ground in the Kordonboyu neighbourhood, between the Marmaray station of Kartal, the sea-bus terminal and the pier of the island boats, is where the crowds of the district gather. In the sixth century the centre of Kartal was a fishing village called Kartalimen; the district's name comes either from that village or from Aydos Hill, whose name means eagle in Greek. The sources also mention a fisherman named Kartelli who was the first to come to the shore to fish. Kartal became Ottoman territory around 1400; it was a sub-district attached to the Islands in 1755 and to Üsküdar in 1757, and a township of the İzmit sanjak in 1850. A district governorship was set up in 1870 and a municipality in 1871, with Yasin Ağa as its first mayor. In 1888 Kartal was taken within the boundaries of the Istanbul city prefecture. According to the district governorate's history, it remained attached to the Üsküdar mutasarrıflık until 1908 and then became a district of Istanbul. Until 1928 today's Islands district also belonged to Kartal, so the link between Kartal's pier and the islands rests on an administrative past as well as on geography. Kartal's first ferry pier was built in 1857. From the 1950s to the 1980s the car ferries Mudanya and Çardak ran between Kartal and Yalova; anyone who wanted to cross to Anatolia by car came this way. Today motorboats leave the pier for the islands, and sea buses leave the terminal for Yalova. The terminal and the pier stand on Turgut Özal Bulvarı, which runs along the shore. In 2024 the transport board of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality decided to open a Tuzla-Pendik-Büyükada line to relieve the crowding at the Bostancı, Maltepe and Kartal piers; the decision shows how heavily Kartal's pier is used for the island crossing. The railway is also part of the square's history. Kartal station opened on 22 September 1872; it was rebuilt for the electric suburban line in 1969, and with the opening of the Haydarpaşa-Gebze suburban line in 1973 the district grew quickly. Closed in 2013 for the Marmaray project, the station was shifted about 800 metres east, rebuilt on a viaduct and reopened on 12 March 2019. The station stands between the Yukarı, Çavuşoğlu and Kordonboyu neighbourhoods; Kartal Square and the Maarifi Mosque are counted among its surroundings. The five Marmaray stations in Kartal opened in 2019; Kartal station lies on the B1 line between Halkalı and Gebze. The Kartal station of the M4 metro, by contrast, is at the D-100 highway junction, north of the square; it opened on 17 August 2012 and has four entrances and a pedestrian underpass of about 180 metres. Declared an industrial zone in 1947, Kartal reached its present borders when Pendik separated in 1987 and Maltepe and Sultanbeyli in 1992. What there is to see on the square is not a monument but the sea itself. The coastal park at Kordonboyu spreads out on both sides of the pier with a walkway along the rock fill and lawns; to the west the green ridge of Dragos Hill is in view, to the south the Princes' Islands. In the morning hours the front of the pier fills with passengers bound for the islands; for a quiet walk choose the afternoon. Watch the sunset from the western side of the pier, looking towards Dragos. The centre of Kartal lies at an average of 65 metres above sea level; to the north, the 573-metre Aydos Hill, the highest point of Istanbul, falls partly within the district. West of the square, the Dragos stream that marks the border with Maltepe was, in 1081, the first border in Anatolia between the Seljuks and Byzantium. The district covers 38.54 square kilometres including the Aydos forest and is made up of twenty neighbourhoods. Because the coast road runs without a break between Bostancı and Tuzla, from here you can walk west to Dragos and Maltepe Coastal Park, or east to the Pendik shore. Ferry and sea-bus timetables change with the season, so check the current times on the operators' websites. The easiest way to get here is the Marmaray; when you leave Kartal station the square and the pier are a few minutes away. Those arriving by M4 walk down the avenue from Kartal station to the shore or take the buses down to the square. Bağdat Caddesi runs from Kadıköy as far as Kartal, and the coast-road buses pass in front of the square. Sabiha Gökçen Airport is about fifteen kilometres from Kartal.