Skip to main content
Radar Türkiye
Discover events in the app
Open
Radar Türkiye
A Day on the Asian Shore from Çengelköy to Kandilli
Cultural

A Day on the Asian Shore from Çengelköy to Kandilli

No ratings yet

Sign in to like and rate

Heading north from Üsküdar along the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, the coast slows down once you pass Beylerbeyi. On a map, Çengelköy, Kuleli, Vaniköy and Kandilli look like one continuous strip, yet each has its own face.

Üsküdar, İstanbul
Cultural
Radar Editör
September 24, 2026

About Trip

Heading north from Üsküdar along the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, the coast slows down once you pass Beylerbeyi. On a map, Çengelköy, Kuleli, Vaniköy and Kandilli look like one continuous strip, yet each has its own face. Çengelköy is a village centre built around its pier square and an old plane tree. Kuleli is a towered building that fills the shoreline when seen from the water. Vaniköy is an old waterfront village with a wooden mosque on the quay. Kandilli is a former summer retreat with mansions on its point and an observatory on its hill. This outing links the four at an easy pace, from a morning arrival to the evening ferry.

Getting there

Both Çengelköy and Kandilli have Şehir Hatları ferry piers, and the company's timetable lists lines from Çengelköy towards Kabataş and İstinye. The easiest plan is to step off the ferry at Çengelköy in the morning and catch one home from Kandilli in the evening. Sailings on this shore are not frequent, so check the timetable on the Şehir Hatları website before you set out. If the times do not suit you, buses following the coast road from Üsküdar are the alternative.

The Çengelköy pier is a piece of history in itself. According to Şehir Hatları, the first pier was built in timber on the site of an old rowing-boat landing, and in 1894 the Şirket-i Hayriye ferry company bought the present plot and enlarged it. The moment you step ashore, the square, the tea gardens and the houses climbing the slope lay out the whole village in front of you.

The plane tree and the pier square

The heart of Çengelköy is the square in front of the pier and the plane tree that stands there, a few steps from the water. According to TRT Haber, the tree stood 26 metres tall before it fell. The plane was uprooted in a storm in July 2017, when, according to the Anadolu Agency report, it was 180 years old. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality crews lifted it back upright with a crane, pruned its crown and side branches and protected the roots, and about a month and a half later it began to put out new shoots. Knowing about this second life makes you look at the square a little more closely.

The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam describes Çengelköy as a sizeable village founded where the Bekar stream, running down from the slopes of Çakal hill, meets the sea, and notes that the village was laid out in the reign of Murad IV. Its main promenade was Havuzbaşı, and a park of the same name exists today. The encyclopedia also lists the Vezir Fountain, fed with water from Çamlıca, and a mosque built by Grand Admiral Abdullah Pasha among the village's old monuments. Walk a few streets inland from the pier and the wooden houses and high garden walls still give a sense of the old village scale.

The name and the cucumbers

Nobody is certain where the name Çengelköy comes from. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam says that ship anchors known as "çengel çapa" were made here and gave the village its name. Wikipedia lists several other explanations, including one linking it to Çengeloğlu Tahir Pasha. Sources also record that in the Byzantine period the shore was known as Sophianai, a name associated with the Empress Sophia. The honest approach is to keep these layers in mind together rather than cling to a single story.

One thing is certain. Çengelköy was famous for its cucumbers. The TDV entry states it plainly, and Turkish Wikipedia adds the village's cherries and quinces. According to English Wikipedia, the small cucumber that bears the village's name is now grown elsewhere. The name lives on in the kitchen, while the market gardens have long since turned into houses.

Seeing Kuleli from the water

North of Çengelköy a long, pale building with towers at its corners stretches along the shore. This is Kuleli. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam explains that the site was called Kuleli Bahçe, the Tower Garden, after a tower that once stood here, and that Süleyman the Magnificent built a pavilion in the garden. After the Janissary corps was abolished in 1826, Mahmud II enlarged the grounds and built a barracks for the cavalry of the new army. It burned during repairs in 1844 and was rebuilt. Used as a hospital for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War, it burned once more and was rebuilt in masonry in the early 1860s. From 1872 it served as a military school.

The present building has five-storey towers at its corners and an arcaded courtyard in the middle. It served for many years as a military high school, and according to Wikipedia it is still a campus of a military education institution. As a military zone it is closed to visitors. You will see the full length of its façade best from the deck of a ferry passing this shore. On land, bear in mind that photography and filming may be restricted around military sites.

Vaniköy's waterfront mosque

Beyond Kuleli, Vaniköy begins. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, this stretch was once known as the Priest's Garden or Priest's Grove. When Mehmed IV granted it to his tutor Vani Mehmed Efendi, the village came to be called after him. Born in Hoşap near Van, Vani Mehmed Efendi preached in Erzurum before being summoned to Istanbul and joining the sultan's close circle. Sources record that in 1665 he built a mosque here with a madrasa and houses beside it, enlarging an earlier prayer hall and building a waterfront house for himself. The mosque was thoroughly repaired in 1752, the year the Küçüksu Pavilion was built, by Devatdar Mehmed Emin Pasha.

Vaniköy Mosque is a timber-framed waterfront mosque with a fountain set into its seaward wall. On 15 November 2020 a fire caused by an electrical fault damaged its wooden parts, and after a long restoration it reopened for worship in 2023. If you go inside, choose a time outside prayer hours, wear clothing that covers shoulders and knees, women should cover their hair, take your shoes off at the entrance and keep your voice low.

The TDV entry on waterfront mansions names the mansion of the Mühürdarzade family, the Vani Efendi Yalı that gave the village its name and the Nafiz Pasha Yalı as the oldest in Vaniköy. According to the same entry, only the men's quarters survive of the Serasker Rıza Pasha Yalı designed by Alexandre Vallaury, while the Mahmud Nedim Pasha Yalı, noted for its conical wooden towers, was built by an Ottoman ambassador to Vienna. All are private homes, to be admired from the shore or the water.

An observatory on the Kandilli hill

The steep hill behind Vaniköy was once known as İcadiye hill. According to the history published by Boğaziçi University's Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, the institution goes back to the Rasathane-i Amire founded in Pera in 1868. Its first director was Aristide Coumbary, who was modernising the Ottoman telegraph network, and it was set up mainly to make weather observations and send forecasts by telegraph. After the Istanbul earthquake of 1894, seismographs were brought from Italy and the Italian seismologist Giovanni Agamennone took charge of that section. When the instruments were destroyed during the 31 March Incident of 1909, Fatin Hoca, later known by the surname Gökmen, was appointed director on 21 June 1910 and chose İcadiye hill as the new site. Regular measurements began here on 1 July 1911, the institution first took the name Kandilli Observatory in 1936, and in 1982 it became part of Boğaziçi University.

The seismograph building on the slope facing Bebek is a two-storey masonry structure begun in 1930 and finished in 1934. One of the tile panels on its façade shows a quadrant, an astronomical instrument. Since 21 June 2006 the building has housed the observatory's history of science collection, displaying instruments used in astronomy and earth science; according to the institute, 32 of the Kandilli manuscripts are among the items on show. The campus is not open for casual wandering, so check the visit application section on the institute's website and apply in advance.

The Kandilli shore and its mansions

The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam gives two traditions for the name Kandilli, from "kandil", an oil lamp. In one, a lamp was lit here for sultans returning from the Göksu stream. In the other, seven nights of lamp illuminations were held for the birth of Prince Mehmed in a pavilion built here by Murad IV. The encyclopedia adds that a royal garden called "bahçe-i kandil" existed here in the mid-sixteenth century and that a beacon had long burned on the hill above Kandilli point. The district's real development came under Mahmud I, who renewed the waterfront palace in 1752 and had a mosque, a bath and shops built at its centre. The same source notes that Kandilli was known for its printed headscarves.

Mansions line the shore. The TDV entry on waterfront mansions lists the Kıbrıslı Yalı, the İsmail Pasha and Server Pasha mansions, the Abud Efendi and Count Ostrorog mansions and the Cemile Sultan Palace built by Mustafa Fazıl Pasha in the 1870s among the notable buildings of the Kandilli shore. Above the point stands the Adile Sultan Palace. Built in the mid-nineteenth century for Adile Sultan, it became a girls' school at her wish; it served as Kandilli Girls' High School from 1916 until a fire in 1986 and reopened in 2007 as an education and culture centre after restoration. According to Wikipedia, the deepest point of the Bosphorus, around 110 metres, lies between Kandilli point and Bebek bay on the opposite shore.

Kandilli's pier has its own story. According to Şehir Hatları, the village's first pier stood in front of a row of shops above the Mustafa Pasha Yalı; when that building burned in 1916 a new one was built. In 1978 a Liberian-flagged ship called Methodic struck the pier, and the present concrete pier replaced it.

Suggested walk

Start at the Çengelköy pier, have a tea under the plane tree and wander into the inner streets and Havuzbaşı. Then return to the shore and walk north past Kuleli to Vaniköy. Around Vaniköy Mosque, look at the sea façades of the mansions. If your observatory application has been accepted, climb the hill from here. Finish by going down to the Kandilli shore and walking past Kandilli Mosque to the pier. The route is short and flat, but the coast road carries traffic, so stay on the pavement.

Season and time of day

The Asian shore faces west, towards the European side. In the late afternoon the sun sets behind the opposite shore, so from Çengelköy or Kandilli you watch it go down over the European skyline. Çengelköy square is quieter early in the morning and can get busy at weekends. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for walking; at midday in summer there is little shade along the shore.

Practical notes

  • Ferries are infrequent, so check the Şehir Hatları timetable in advance.
  • Kuleli is a military zone and closed to visitors.
  • A visit to the Kandilli Observatory requires an application in advance.
  • Visit Vaniköy Mosque outside prayer times and in suitable clothing.
  • The mansions are all private property and can only be seen from outside.

Sources

Location - A Day on the Asian Shore from Çengelköy to Kandilli

Trip Info
CityÜsküdar, İstanbul
TypeCultural
DateSeptember 24, 2026
SourceRadar Editör
Radar TürkiyeAuthorRadar TürkiyeVisit SourceGet Directions