Beşiktaş Çarşı and Yıldız Park: the inland walk
The Çarşı, the fish market, a Sinan mosque, then up the hill to the sultan's imperial gardens. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Beşiktaş İskelesi
Ferries from Eminönü, Karaköy, Üsküdar, Kadıköy on the various Bosphorus lines. The pier opens onto Barbaros Meydanı with the bronze eagle that's the Beşiktaş football club's emblem and the neighbourhood's mascot. Cut west into the Çarşı; the walk goes uphill from here.

2. Beşiktaş Çarşı
Three or four square blocks of working market — pide ovens, small bakkals selling Kars cheese and Çorum hazelnuts, the rhythm of an inland neighbourhood that hosts a football club. The Beşiktaş scarves and flags everywhere are for the club, not visitors.

3. Sinanpaşa Camii
Sinan's 1555 mosque for the Grand Admiral Sinan Pasha. Modest scale, three small domes, a calm courtyard. The architect had just finished Şehzade and was a few years out from Süleymaniye — this is him doing the medium-budget version.

4. Beşiktaş balık pazarı
The fish market that anchors the Çarşı — open mornings until early afternoon. The midday smell is the neighbourhood's signature. Walk through, listen to the prices being argued, push on.

5. Yıldız Park entrance
The climb up Yıldız Caddesi from the Çarşı takes about twenty minutes. The park is roughly a hundred hectares — pine forest, ornamental ponds, kiosks Abdülhamid II built in the 1880s. Free to enter; can occupy a whole afternoon if you let it.

6. Şale Köşkü
The imperial chalet in the upper park — the sultan's main residence after he moved out of Dolmabahçe in 1879. He entertained Kaiser Wilhelm II here on the German imperial visit of 1898. Now a museum (closed Mondays, typically). The Yıldız bus stop is back down at the lower gate.

Beşiktaş Çarşı and Yıldız Park: the inland walk