From Observatory to Astrolabe, Tracing Science in Istanbul

Yeşilköy is known as the birthplace of Turkish aviation, which is why the Air Force brought its museum here. The idea of preserving aircraft emerged in the 1960s and the first aviation museum opened at Cumaovası near İzmir in 1971; because it was hard to reach, the collection moved next to the military airfield at Yeşilköy. The building, begun in 1977, was completed in 1983 and the museum opened to visitors on 16 October 1985. Of its roughly 65,000 square metres, 12,000 are outdoor display and 2,365 are indoor galleries. Outside stand training and transport aircraft, jets and helicopters; a C-47 transport built in 1943 and a Dornier built in 1970 are just two of them.

The indoor hall holds aircraft models from the 1900s to the 1980s, piston and jet engines, medals and uniforms from Ottoman aviators to the present. The flight suits of Sabiha Gökçen and Vecihi Hürkuş are among the most popular pieces, and there are sections on Hürkuş's designs and on the flight attempts traditionally attributed to Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi and Lagari Hasan Çelebi. As the first stop on a science route, focus on the engines: seeing a piston engine next to a jet engine quickly shows that aviation was above all an engineering race. The outdoor area is large and involves a lot of walking, so wear comfortable shoes. Check visiting days and hours on the Air Force Command's museum page before you go.

Source: Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia.

Inside Gülhane Park, in the former Imperial Stables building next to the outer wall of Topkapı Palace, this museum is the fruit of the life's work of the historian of science Fuat Sezgin. At the Institute for the History of Arab-Islamic Sciences attached to Goethe University in Frankfurt, Sezgin had instruments described by Muslim scholars between the 9th and 16th centuries rebuilt as models, working from the descriptions and drawings in period texts. The Istanbul museum opened in May 2008 with a counterpart of that collection, while the Frankfurt collection remains at the institute. Most of what you see is therefore not original but models made from manuscript descriptions, and for some of them it is not known whether they were ever built in their own time. Knowing this does not diminish the museum; it simply helps you look at it the right way.

The galleries are divided into sections such as astronomy, clocks and navigation, military technology, medicine, physics, chemistry and optics, mathematics and geometry, architecture and urban planning, mining and geography. The astrolabe in the route's title is here: give extra time to the astrolabes, celestial globes and observatory instruments in the astronomy section, because they set up the story of the stops that follow. The museum's best-known piece is the model of al-Jazari's elephant clock, and the physics section shows pumps and pulley systems from al-Jazari's book of machines. The maps in the geography section show how knowledge stretched from al-Andalus to the Indian Ocean. The museum is open every day and the Museum Pass is valid; walk through the park from the Gülhane stop on the T1 tram.

Source: Muze.gov.tr; Wikipedia.

On Istanbul University's main campus in Beyazıt Square, right beside the historic Beyazıt Tower, stands a domed building: the Istanbul University Observatory, described as Turkey's first modern observatory. When the Faculty of Science was founded in 1933, the German astronomer Erwin Finlay-Freundlich, appointed to head the astronomy department, proposed building an observatory. Designed by the architect Arif Hikmet Holtay, the building was begun in December 1935 and completed in about six months. The 30-centimetre Carl Zeiss Jena astrograph, ordered in December 1935, arrived in twelve pieces in September 1936, was installed in the dome, and the observatory began work that autumn.

Light and air pollution in the city centre now make night observation impossible here; for night-sky work the department set up an observatory in Çanakkale in 2002. The Beyazıt dome also has telescopes for observing sunspots and the Sun's chromosphere, and between 2009 and 2013 the building was strengthened while keeping its original architecture. The Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences receives individual and group visitors on weekdays, with activities such as planetarium shows, visits to the historic dome and telescope observation, and an observation evening on the last Friday of every month. An appointment is required; get the contact details from the department's science and society page and book ahead. In bad weather, telescope sessions are moved to another day. Standing under the dome, think of the tradition of observation that returned to this city three and a half centuries after Taqi al-Din's observatory.

Source: İstanbul Üniversitesi Astronomi ve Uzay Bilimleri Bölümü; Wikipedia.

Galata Tower is here not for its view but as a stage for science. Taqi al-Din, the Damascus-born astronomer and mathematician, became chief astronomer in 1571 and began his observations at Galata Tower; his entry in the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam records this clearly, and the tower's official history states that it served as an observatory in the reign of Murad III. In 1577, with Murad III's permission and the support of the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, Taqi al-Din founded his own observatory on the slopes of Tophane. Equipped with instruments of his own design and with a library of its own, it was the only observatory in Ottoman history. Its life was short: it was demolished by imperial decree on 22 January 1580, and nothing of it remains.

When you reach the viewing gallery, look towards Tophane and the slopes running down to the sea; that is where the observatory stood. Taqi al-Din's work was not limited to the sky: he used decimal fractions in practice, compiled trigonometric tables, designed mechanical clocks able to show seconds and wrote on optics. The tower's official history also mentions Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi's attempt to fly from here to Üsküdar in the reign of Murad IV, which links back to the aviation museum you saw in the morning. Built by the Genoese in 1348 and used as a fire watchtower from the 18th century, the tower is now run as a museum by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It is open daily and the Museum Pass is valid; to avoid queues, come early or in the late afternoon.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Galata Kulesi resmi sitesi.

The Rahmi M. Koç Museum in Hasköy, founded in 1994 with the support of the businessman Rahmi Koç, was Turkey's first major museum devoted to the history of industry, transport and communication. Its buildings are industrial heritage too: the Lengerhane section is in an 18th-century Ottoman building erected on Byzantine foundations in the reign of Ahmed III, and the Tersane section is in the yard that the Şirket-i Hayriye ferry company set up in 1861 to maintain its steamers. The whole museum can easily fill half a day, so on this short visit keep to the science route.

Start in the Lengerhane, where instruments used in the research of Boğaziçi University's Kandilli Observatory are on display. Kandilli's roots go back to the Rasathane-i Amire founded in 1868; the observatory moved to Kandilli in 1911 and worked in astronomy, meteorology and the earth sciences. Since the institute today only receives school groups by appointment, this is the easiest place to see these instruments. The same section has communication devices and printing machines, which read like a continuation of the curiosity about measuring and transmitting that runs from Taqi al-Din's clocks to our day. Then visit the computer history section in the Tersane building. The maritime, car and railway galleries can wait for another visit. The museum is closed on Mondays and closes earlier on weekdays than at weekends, so check current hours on its official website. From the Golden Horn shore, public transport links you easily back towards Karaköy or Eminönü.

Source: Rahmi M. Koç Müzesi; Kandilli Rasathanesi; Wikipedia.