Garden, Castle, Dam and Forest in the East of the Asian Side

Start the day at the garden's Ataşehir entrance, because this entrance opens the garden in the order best suited to walking. As soon as you pass the gate you will hear the noise of the motorway, and that noise is the garden's story itself. The Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanical Garden is laid out at the junction where the motorways coming from the Atatürk and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges meet the motorway towards Ankara, on the islands left between the main roads and the slip roads. According to the garden's official history the site consists of eight islands and was allocated to this purpose by a protocol between the General Directorate of Highways and the ANG Foundation. As you walk, notice the crossings between the islands; each island carries another group of plants or another idea of a garden.

Head first for the Central Island. The garden's display gardens are largely gathered here: the succession planting area where natural and cultivated plants grow one after another to form patterns, the container designs, and the canal side, planted every year with a different colour combination. Because the seasonal beds are usually changed twice a year, someone who comes to the same spot in spring and in autumn sees two different gardens. Do not hurry in this part; stop in front of each area and look at how the planting is composed.

After the Central Island cross to the Anatolia Island. Here there is a square where cultivars of ornamental plants are shown year by year, and an area where the same succession planting technique is tried with native species only. Comparing the two areas teaches you to look with a gardener's eye. Then you can continue along the paths of the islands named after Istanbul, Thrace and the oak.

While looking at the garden as it is today, keep its beginning in mind. The site was founded in 1995 by Ali Nihat Gökyiğit as a memorial park in the name of his wife Nezahat Gökyiğit, and first the soil, badly damaged during road construction, was reclaimed. According to the official history about 50 thousand trees and shrubs were planted on the 46 hectare site. The aim later changed, the site opened to the public in 2002 and took its present name in 2003. The grove you see today was bare fill soil thirty years ago.

Choose in advance what to look at according to the season. The garden's gallery page highlights species such as snowdrop, Judas tree and cherry laurel in spring, and bulbs such as the autumn crocus and Colchicum kotschyi in autumn. If you come in October, bend down at the edges of the lawns and at the foot of the trees and look for the crocuses.

The garden is also a research institution. The herbarium founded in 2004 entered the international register in 2010 and received the code NGBB, and according to Wikipedia it keeps around 8,500 dried plant specimens. The institution's publications on the flora of Turkey also show the scientific side of the garden. The herbarium is not an exhibition open to visitors; what you do here is know about this work behind the paths you walk.

For photographs use the soft morning light and shoot the colourful seasonal beds before the shadows fall. Inside the garden walk on the marked paths without stepping on the plants. Before leaving, check the announcement on the garden's official site; because of maintenance the Ümraniye entrance or one of the islands may be temporarily closed. From here you will head southeast, towards Sultanbeyli, to reach Aydos Castle.

Source: Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi, Tarihçe ve Gösteri Bahçeleri; Wikipedia, Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi.

Aydos Castle stands on a hill on the northeastern slope of the forested Aydos Mountain, in the Mehmet Akif neighbourhood of Sultanbeyli. According to the castle's official site the hill is 325 metres above sea level, 36 kilometres east of the Istanbul city centre and 8 kilometres north of the Sea of Marmara. Because the castle sits on a hilltop, allow for an uphill climb in the last part and do not hurry. When you reach the top, stop first and look around, because the view explains why the castle was built here. According to the municipality's text most of the valley can be seen from here, and the castle stood on the old army road running from Üsküdar into Anatolia.

The castle's name comes from Aetos, the Greek word for eagle, and the name has reached the present with only a small change. According to the municipality's introduction, construction began in the 11th and 12th centuries, and with later additions the castle took its final form in the 13th and 14th centuries. Most of the remains found in the excavation belong to this last period and show the time when the castle was used most intensively. The same excavation also yielded Early Bronze Age stone axe heads and flint chips, so the hill had been used much earlier too.

After entering the gate, wander around the wide area enclosed by the outer walls. Together with its outer walls the castle covers an area of about 26 thousand square metres, and the defence was built in stages as two rings, an inner and an outer wall. The castle's official site speaks of twelve towers, six attached to the inner and six to the outer wall. Wikipedia counts seven towers on the outer wall, so there is a small difference between the sources. When you come close to the walls you can see that the semicircular towers were built with Khorasan mortar, local stone and here and there brick.

The place to look at most carefully on this route is the first tower. The original gate of the castle lies inside this tower, and its masonry differs from the other walls, as it was built in the Byzantine cassette wall technique. Because this technique is typical mostly of the 13th and 14th centuries, the tower is thought to be a later addition. Part of the stepped stair leading up the tower and the remains of the ledge that soldiers used at the top of the tower also survive in their original form.

Then look at the castle's water system. The first cistern in the north was built in the alternating technique, with brick and stone laid in turn, and according to measurements it holds about 300 cubic metres of water. The second cistern in the east has a rectangular plan and holds about 450 cubic metres. In the northeast there is a long building of four sections; because carbonised wheat and broad bean remains were found inside, the excavation team thinks it was a granary.

The story of the castle comes to a head when most of the Kocaeli Peninsula passed under Ottoman control between 1326 and 1328. In those years only Aydos remained on the border between the two states, and Abdurrahman Gazi, one of Orhan Gazi's commanders, besieged the castle. According to the legend told in Aşıkpaşazade's chronicle, the governor's daughter helped the besiegers with a letter wrapped round a stone, let down a rope so they could climb the walls, and the castle was taken in a night raid. The historian Halil İnalcık describes Aydos as the place where the conquest of Istanbul began.

At the end of the visit go into the Aydos Castle Introduction and Exhibition Hall. According to the municipality's announcement it displays columns, bases, arch fragments, relief panels and iron-clamped stones found during the excavation and restoration. The pieces date to the Early and Middle Byzantine periods, and the hall also shows photographs of the twelve-year restoration and short films. The museum is closed on Mondays; check the current hours on its official site. From here you will go north, towards the Ömerli Dam in the direction of Çekmeköy.

Source: Sultanbeyli Belediyesi, Aydos Kalesi tanıtım sitesi ve Aydos Müzesi duyurusu.

Approach the Ömerli Dam from the side of Çekmeköy's Ömerli neighbourhood. Ömerli is an old village with a shore on the reservoir it gave its name to, and today it is a neighbourhood of Çekmeköy. According to the district history published by the Çekmeköy Municipality, the village's name appears in court records from the 1520s. According to the same text, the name probably comes from the village land having been granted to a man named Ömer. A calculation from the census register of 1832 shows that the village had about fifty seven households that year.

The task here is to see the lake and to understand on the spot what it means for the city. The dam is built on the Riva stream, which rises near Gebze in Kocaeli and flows into the Black Sea. According to İSKİ's water sources page it was put into service in 1972, and with a yearly capacity of 220 million cubic metres it is Istanbul's largest water source. Almost the whole of the Asian side takes its water from here. According to İSKİ the dam's catchment covers 621 square kilometres. According to Wikipedia the earth-fill dam is 52 metres high from the riverbed and the lake covers about 23 square kilometres.

When you reach the shore, notice the forest around the lake. The dam's catchment is a protected area deliberately kept free of building. The green you see is green protected so that the drinking water stays clean. The lake is not a place for swimming or picnics but a drinking water reservoir. So do not go into the water, do not light fires on the shore and take your rubbish with you. Respect the warning signs on the shore and the markings of restricted areas.

It is also good to know where the water goes after the lake. According to İSKİ figures an average of 600 million cubic metres a year is taken from Ömerli to the Ömerli Drinking Water Treatment Plants. Made up of four plants, this complex is the largest treatment facility in Istanbul by daily capacity. The first plant, Orhaniye, came into service in 1978. The treated water goes to the districts of the Asian side, and on the European side to part of Fatih and Bakırköy, to Zeytinburnu and to the shoreline of Beşiktaş and Sarıyer. In other words, the water you brewed your tea with this morning very probably comes from this lake.

While looking at the lake from a distance, think of the other end of the same stream. After the dam the Riva stream flows north between the forests and meets the Black Sea in the Çayağzı neighbourhood of Beykoz. There is no need to stay long at this stop; forty five minutes are enough to see the lake and take photographs. The lake's sunset view is well known, but since the route keeps the late afternoon for the Polonezköy forest, settle here for the early afternoon light. From here head northwest along the forest roads to Polonezköy in Beykoz.

Source: İSKİ, Su Kaynakları ve Ömerli İçme Suyu Arıtma Tesisleri; Çekmeköy Belediyesi, Çekmeköy Tarihi.

When you reach Polonezköy, leave the car in a suitable place and spend the rest of the day on foot. The village lies on the forested hills of Beykoz, according to Wikipedia about 20 kilometres from the Black Sea coast and about 15 kilometres from the Bosphorus shore. The reason to give this last stop two and a half hours is the forest. The surroundings of the village lie within the Polonezköy Nature Park, declared by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in 1994. The list of the Nature Conservation and National Parks directorate gives the park's declaration date as 15 July 1994.

First take a short walk along the village's main road and remember why this place bears a Polish name. Polonezköy was founded in 1842 on the initiative of Prince Adam Czartoryski, who went into exile after the Polish uprising of 1830. The village's old name, Adampol, comes from its founder's name. Czartoryski's representative Michal Czajkowski bought the forested land where the village would later be founded. According to Wikipedia only twelve people lived in the village at first, and even at its most populous the number of residents did not exceed two hundred and twenty. The first inhabitants made their living from farming, animal husbandry and forestry.

While passing through the village, find out where the Zofia Rizi Memorial House is. This small house keeps photographs, books and documents of the Ryży family and an old interior. According to the village records, the visitors to Polonezköy include the composer Franz Liszt in 1847 and the writer Gustave Flaubert in 1850. In 1938 the villagers became Turkish citizens, and in 1968 they received title deeds to the land they worked. Today a festival recalling the ties with Poland is held in the village every summer.

After seeing the village, move on to the main task, the forest walk. According to Wikipedia the nature park, with an area of about 3,004 hectares, is Istanbul's first and largest nature park. The park has a walking, cycling and running trail of about five kilometres and observation towers. Walk the trail at your own pace and look over the forest canopy from one of the observation towers. Among the trees are black pine, sessile oak, Hungarian oak, chestnut, oriental beech, hornbeam and lime. In autumn the chestnut and beech leaves turn yellow, and in spring the forest floor turns green again.

As you walk, watch for the forest's inhabitants as well. Mammals such as fallow deer, roe deer, wild boar, squirrel and marten, and birds such as the hawk, partridge, blackbird and owl are recorded in the park. If you walk quietly you will hear more of the birds. Do not feed the animals and do not leave the trail.

Be practical about shoes and gear. Forest paths can be muddy after rain, so wear closed shoes that do not slip. In summer long trousers and repellent spray help against ticks and mosquitoes. When the late afternoon light falls horizontally between the trees, the best hour for photographs begins. Leave the trail before dark, as finding your way in the forest gets harder at night. On the way back, allow for heavy traffic at the village exit at weekends and set off early.

Source: Wikipedia, Polonezköy ve Polonezköy Tabiat Parkı; Doğa Koruma ve Milli Parklar, Tabiat Parkları listesi.