From Maltepe to Pendik along the Southern Shore of the Anatolian Side

Begin the day at Marmaray's Süreyya Plajı or Maltepe station; several of the park's ten pedestrian entrances are close to both stations, and once you cross Turgut Özal Bulvarı you find yourself in one of the largest open-air sports grounds in Turkey. According to the Maltepe District Governorate, the park opened on 5 January 2020; of its 120 hectares, 101 are land reclaimed from the sea and 19 are older green space. By the measurements given by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, this is a ground 3.2 kilometres long and 400 metres wide, covering more than 1,200,000 square metres; so in the two hours you give this stop, try not to see everything but to choose a few things. The first choice is whether to walk or to cycle: inside the park there is a cycle path of more than 7.5 kilometres and a running track of 1,900 metres, and five cycle entrances are marked separately.

Walk along the road by the sea not westwards but eastwards, that is towards Dragos; that way the morning sun is not at your back, and the silhouette of Büyükada and Heybeliada stays in front of you all the way. As you walk you can count off the sports fields on the landward side: the municipality's list includes three football pitches, five tennis courts, four basketball and two volleyball courts, an athletics track and a sand court for beach football. The skate park, the acrobatic bike track, the mini golf and the model car track are ways of stretching the stop for groups with children or a sporting streak. On the green side, close to 16,000 mature trees, more than a hundred thousand shrubs and 63,000 rose bushes are counted; the rose garden is at its fullest in May and June.

In the part of the park facing the shore you will see the Şehir Hatları pier of Maltepe; from here there are daily sailings to Büyükada, Heybeliada, Burgazada and Kınalıada. If you want to combine the route with the islands one day, you can board the ferry here; check the sailing times on the official Şehir Hatları website. On the water side, events such as dragon boat races, canoe and rowing races and the Water Sports Festival are held; use the course along the shore to watch the crews rowing. The park's event areas, 30,000 square metres of hard surface and 59,000 square metres of grass, are the place for big concerts and gatherings; if you coincide with the calendar, allow for the crowds.

If you come in September, do not miss the Ulugazi Oil Wrestling. According to Wikipedia, the wrestling goes back to the bouts Atatürk watched in 1933, was revived in 2021 after a gap of 83 years, and is held in this park every September by İBB Spor. The edges of the wrestling ground fill up early; come in the morning for a good spot.

And follow the trace of a lost beach. Under this reclaimed land lies the sand of Süreyya Beach: according to the Cultural Inventory, Süreyya İlmen Pasha started construction in 1939, the beach opened on 8 June 1946, and according to the Turkish Tourism Encyclopedia it lost its appeal with the Caddebostan-Tuzla coastal reclamation that began at the end of the 1980s and closed in 1992. According to an article published on MİMDAP, the beach had 80 first-class and more than 200 second-class changing cabins, a casino and a hotel of 42 rooms. The six-columned Monument of the Virgins, erected on a rock 50 metres off the beach, stands today some 600 metres inland, in the middle of the reclaimed land; the statue of Venus inside it is lost, but the structure was restored by the metropolitan municipality in 2022-2023. Look for the monument around Süreyya Plajı station; the name of the beach, after all, survives only in this station.

The Orhan Gazi in the park's name is no stranger to this coast: according to the history page of the Kartal District Governorate, Orhan Gazi won the Battle of Pelekanon, that is the Battle of Maltepe, here in 1329, and according to Wikipedia the Ottoman army made its second halt after Üsküdar on the Baghdad road at Maltepe. The same source notes that the name Maltepe means treasure hill and is tied to the legend of Dragos; the treasure the dragon guards is waiting for you at the next stop. To rest, choose one of the benches near the shore, because the inner parts of the park have no shade in the midday sun. To move on to Dragos, follow the coastal road eastwards; the hill rises ahead of you beyond the shore, and if you are going by Marmaray, Cevizli station is at the foot of the hill.

Source: Maltepe Kaymakamlığı; İBB Gençlik ve Spor Hizmetleri; Kültür Envanteri; Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi; MİMDAP; Kartal Kaymakamlığı; Şehir Hatları; Wikipedia.

Enter Dragos from Cevizli station or by following the shore road from the Maltepe park; the hill rises 107 metres above the sea and stands right on the border between Maltepe and Kartal. As you climb the slope, look at the orderly pattern of the streets and the houses with gardens: according to the Istanbul Encyclopedia, this hill was settled through the İstanbul Ankara Evleri cooperative founded in 1947, roads were opened and asphalted, villas were built on the plots distributed, and pine trees were planted on the summit. The pines on the summit are the legacy of that planting, and their shade is the best place to stop for the view. According to the same source, drinking water was brought to the hill from six kilometres away and Cevizli station was built below; so the stop you arrive at by train today is a product of the summer life on the hill. The name Dragos, considered foreign, was officially changed to Orhan Tepe that same year; according to Wikipedia most of the hill lies today in Kartal's Orhantepe neighbourhood, but the old name never fell out of use.

When you reach the summit, turn south first. The hill's view over the islands and the Marmara is praised both in the Istanbul Encyclopedia and on Wikipedia; Büyükada, Heybeliada, Burgazada and Kınalıada line up here side by side as on a map. Because the islands lie to the south, the midday sun gives backlight; early morning or mid-afternoon is better for photographs. Then look west: the 3.2-kilometre Maltepe park you have just walked stretches beneath your feet as a green strip. To the east lie the shores of Kartal and Pendik, and inland rises Aydos Hill, at 537 metres the highest point of Istanbul according to Wikipedia. Wikipedia's Dragos article calls this hill the Balcony of Istanbul, and the same title appears in the Kartal article for Yakacık Hill; decide for yourself which balcony is better.

Beneath the view there is also a legend. According to Wikipedia, the name Dragos means dragon and derives from a legend of a treasure hidden on the hill and a dragon guarding it; the fact that the name Maltepe means treasure hill is tied to the same story. History is older than the legend: the past of Dragos goes back to the sixth century, and in work begun by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums in 2010, traces of buildings dated to the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods were found, including the remains of a bath and a church; they are thought to have belonged to a Byzantine palace. Ask on the spot whether there is a visitor path laid out for these remains; no such arrangement is mentioned in the written sources. According to the history page of the Kartal District Governorate, the Dragos Stream, which takes its name from the hill, was counted as the border between the Seljuk sultan Süleyman Şah and Byzantium in the 1080s; so for a time this hill was the boundary stone of two worlds.

In an hour-long stop, spend twenty minutes at the summit and keep the rest for the descent and the shore. On the way down choose the streets on the sea side; the slope is steep, so comfortable shoes are needed, and on a rainy day the asphalt is slippery. The streets on the slope are residential streets; keep quiet and do not enter the gardens. Down on the shore, on the Kartal side, you will see the Dragos Campus of Marmara University, built according to Wikipedia on the site of the former TEKEL tobacco factory; from here the shoreline continues long and flat towards Kartal. According to news from Kartal Municipality, a water sports pier for sailing, rowing and swimming was being prepared on the Dragos shore; do not be surprised if you see sailing boats along the coast. The Dragos shore is also suitable for a lunch break; the benches on the shore look straight at the islands. For the next stop, walk the shore road eastwards towards Kartal Square, or board the train at Cevizli and get off at Kartal, the third stop after Atalar and Başak.

Source: İstanbul Ansiklopedisi; Kartal Kaymakamlığı; Kartal Belediyesi; Wikipedia.

If you come to Kartal by Marmaray, walk down from the station towards the sea; according to Wikipedia, the station lies between the Yukarı, Çavuşoğlu and Kordonboyu neighbourhoods, right beside the square. The station itself carries a history: it first opened on 22 September 1872 with the Ottoman Anatolian Railways, was connected to the electrified suburban line on 29 May 1969, was closed in 2013 and moved about 800 metres east, and reopened on 12 March 2019 as part of Marmaray. According to the history page of the Kartal District Governorate, this suburban line opened in the 1870s and the first steamer pier built in 1857 are the two things that developed Kartal, until then a small settlement; so the train and the pier that form the backbone of this route are also the founding story of the district.

The square itself stretches between the sea and the Marmaray line. According to the news from Kartal Municipality, the renewed Kartal Square covers an area of nearly 100,000 square metres, was laid out to be accessible for everyone, and this old summer-resort ground crossed by the line was reunited with the sea. First follow the shoreline: on this stretch of the shore road there is a fishing harbour, and the area around the boats returning in the morning is the liveliest place of the day. Then walk to the pier; according to Wikipedia, there are sea connections from Kartal pier to the islands and to Yalova, but Kartal does not appear in the line list of Şehir Hatları and the services are run by other operators; check the current lines and times before you go. Even if you are not waiting for a boat, the head of the pier is the point from which you see the islands most closely; Büyükada and Heybeliada look larger from here than from Maltepe. The best angle for a photograph is from the tip of the pier looking back, towards the square and the train passing over the line; in the mid-afternoon the sun comes from the west, so the square is bright while the sea stays dark. According to Wikipedia's station articles, this stretch of the shore road passes through the Kordonboyu neighbourhood and lives up to its name, which means along the quay: the walking and cycling path runs unbroken along the waterfront.

The name of Kartal also comes from this shore. According to the district governorate, the centre of the settlement in the Byzantine period was a fishing village called Kartalimen and its history goes back to the beginning of the sixth century; Wikipedia too writes that the name comes from this fishing village. According to the same sources, Kartal was governed until 1908 as a sanjak attached to the Üsküdar Mutasarrıflık and became a district of Istanbul that year; its designation as an industrial zone in 1947 turned the farming village into a residential suburb. Sitting in the square, you see these layers side by side: the fishing boats, the locals walking along the shore road and the trains passing over the line. According to Wikipedia, the district is today tied to two rail lines at once, with five Marmaray stations and four stations of the M4 metro that opened on 17 August 2012. That is why the square is never empty, even at midday on a weekday.

Also go up to the upper side of the square, the landward side of the Marmaray line. According to Kartal Municipality, here is Neyzen Tevfik Square, named after the famous poet Neyzen Tevfik Kolaylı; in the 75,900-square-metre arrangement built by the metropolitan municipality under its 150 Projects in 150 Days programme there are 6,500 square metres of green space and an amphitheatre for 250 people. The same news item calls Savarona Caddesi the heart of Kartal; cross to the market side along this street for a lunch break. It is possible to sit and rest in the amphitheatre in the square or to go back down to the shore through the Kartal Baba underpass.

In an hour-long stop, give half an hour to the shore and the rest to the market and the upper square. Know Kartal's other two hills from here only by name: according to Wikipedia, the district contains Aydos Hill, the highest point of Istanbul, and Yakacık Hill, called the Balcony of Istanbul; both lie inland, outside this route. To move on to Pendik, keep walking the shore road eastwards, or board Marmaray and get off at Pendik, the second stop after Yunus; the Kartal station of the M4 metro is on the D-100 highway and far from the square, so the train is the shorter way.

Source: Kartal Kaymakamlığı; Kartal Belediyesi; Şehir Hatları; Wikipedia.

If you come to Pendik by train, according to Wikipedia you get off at the station where Marmaray and the High-Speed Train stop under the same roof; the station is in Yeni Mahalle, and Pendik Municipality writes that the sea terminal is 100 metres from the centre, so you reach the shore in a few minutes. This station too is a stop on the Ottoman line opened on 22 September 1872; it was connected to the electrified suburban service in 1969, closed on 19 June 2013 and joined Marmaray on 12 March 2019. Give the last stop of the route ninety minutes, because the coast of Pendik is long: according to Wikipedia the district has 9 kilometres of shore on the Marmara, and in the municipality's words Pendik borders the Sea of Marmara and the islands to the south.

Look at the pier first. From the Pendik İDO pier, the Şehir Hatları Tuzla-Pendik-Büyükada line runs only on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays; if you have come at the weekend and the day has ended early, it is possible to finish the route on Büyükada. From the same pier, according to Wikipedia, fast ferries leave for Yalova; Pendik Municipality presents the district as one of the rare places where air, sea and rail come together, and Sabiha Gökçen Airport is 12 kilometres from the centre. Check the sailing times and the days of service on the official websites of Şehir Hatları and İDO; the timetables here change with the season.

Then walk west along the shore road, towards Kartal; according to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the 36-kilometre cycle network between Bostancı and Pendik runs along this coast, so both the walking path and the cycle path are unbroken. According to the municipality, the district borders Tuzla to the east and Kartal to the west; the shore road continues in both directions, but the route stops here. Even the names of the Marmaray stations tell what the coast to the east is used for: after Pendik come Kaynarca and Tersane, the shipyard. On the shore road in the Doğu neighbourhood stand the Pendik Coastal Sports Facilities, founded in 2006 according to the İBB Sports Inventory; the facility, run by Spor İstanbul, has two floodlit artificial-turf pitches and a tennis court. Along the shore the islands now lie to the west, right under the sunset; in the evening the sun goes down over the islands. That is why the route deliberately ends here: put the sunset in front of you, not behind you, and sit on a bench facing west. The evening wind off the sea is sharp; do not take off your windbreaker.

The town itself is also worth seeing. According to the history page of Pendik Municipality, the oldest name is Pantikapaion, and in the Byzantine period it was called Pantecion, meaning surrounded on all sides by walls; in 1961 the researcher Şevket Aziz Kansu reported Palaeolithic finds here, and the Bithynians who settled in 650 BC founded their kingdom on these lands. According to the same source, Pendik came under Turkish rule in 1328 with the conquest of Aydos Castle. The town suffered three great fires, in 1798, 1830 and 1889; in the last of them 1,200 houses and shops burned. After the fire, architects and engineers brought from Paris by Azaryan Efendi replanned the town, and for this reason the municipality counts Pendik as the first planned town in Turkey. Look at the order of the streets with this in mind as you return from the shore to the station. In 1924, 2,200 people were settled here through the population exchange; the population was 4,000 in 1935 and 30,000 in 1970, the district separated from Kartal on 4 July 1987, and today, according to Wikipedia, more than 750,000 people live here.

Divide the ninety minutes like this: half an hour for the pier and its surroundings, forty minutes for the shore walk, twenty minutes for the sunset. For the return, Marmaray runs in both directions; the Pendik station of the M4 metro is, according to Wikipedia, about a kilometre's walk from the railway station. The station for those boarding the High-Speed Train is in the same place; for anyone who wants to tie the route to the start of a journey to Ankara or Konya, Pendik is a good final stop.

Source: Pendik Belediyesi; Şehir Hatları; İBB Spor Envanteri; İBB Bisiklet; Wikipedia.