Home of Tolerance

Do you like to smell the sea?
Do you like to have shopping?
Do you like to have some tea or coffee?
Or, you like to dine out at a fish restaurant?

I'm sure nobody would reply 'No';)

- The Ortakoy Mosque -

Ortakoy is the best address for all of them with its narrow streets, caffees and street vendors! (See below) Arriving in from a nearby car park, you pass the food stands selling baked potatoes amongst other treats, that's great for mornings or even in the late evenings. You can find live music at different times as well as lots of pigeons. Also Ortakoy is a meeting point for artists that they gather every Sunday to exhibit their works in a streetside gallery.

On Sundays it becomes really crowded but it's the best day for shopping about any hand-made stuff to antiques, you're warned at once as it's one of the very popular spots in Istanbul:) I, too, like being at Ortakoy on Sundays if I can.

Oh... she's my sister, Bengi, only one-year younger than me:) I bet she was looking for her blackberry in the bag;) She's my 'guru' in website design having much more developed skills than me. Her job is on e-commerce consultancy.


It was a perfect sunny wintery(!) weekend. We had an amazing time last weekend. Lots of art happenings took place here with some fascinating exhibits. It's worth noting at this point that it was sunny, a clear blue sky, in the high 18C's, and admiring the beauty of Bosphorus. Oh.. I could die! So we spent a sunny spring-like afternoon with no-jacket wandering around Ortakoy.


More commonly known as Ortakoy Mosque, or Buyuk Mecidiye Camii, is the most splendid of Istanbul's Baroque mosques. Superbly situated on a point extending into of the Bosphorus, located in the European part of the city. The mosque's location along the shore provides outstanding views of the Bosphorus.


Ortakoy with its magnificient view was the site of President G. Bush's speech during the NATO Summit, on June 29, 2004 which he delivered at the front of Galatarasay University.


The mosque was built under the directive of Sultan Abdulmecid, who was the first Sultan to reside at Dolmabahce Palace, in 1854-56 by the Turkish-Armenian Balyan Family that designed also the Dolmabahce Palace; father Nigogayos Balyan, and the son, Garabet Amira Balyan. Nigogayos Balyan designed it in Ottoman baroque-rococo style:


Adding to the splendour is the mosque's monumental location in Ortakoy on the banks of the Bosphorus Strait just beneath the Bosphorus Bridge. In designing this mosque, Nigogayos Balyan, who had studied architecture in Paris, is said to have been inspired by Opéra Garnier in Paris.


Amazing architecture; made of marble, with two-towering minerettes (above) each with a single gallery that are reached by a flight of stairs.


It's composed of intimate rooms and a private areaor sultans. The walls are made of white stone. The walls of the mosque's only Dome (see above) were decorated with very nice pink mosaics along with some calligraphy samples. Inside the mosque, there is a beautiful crystal chandelier hanging (see below). The wide and high windows are designed to let in ever-changing light reflections of the Bosphorus shine in the Mosque, superb!


The Mosque is today overshadowed by one of the world's largest suspension bridges, the Bosphorus Bridge, linking Europe and Asia: an exciting feeling!



In Ortakoy, a mosque (the Ortakoy Mosque), a church (the Hagia Foka Orthodox Church) and a synagogue (the Etz Ahayim Synagogue) have existed side by side for centuries, a tribute to Turkish tolerance:)