Eyüp Sultan to Pierre Loti: mosque, cemetery, view
The pilgrim's climb — mosque to cemetery to Pierre Loti's café above the Golden Horn. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Eyüp Sultan tram (T5)
The new Golden Horn tram, opened 2023, runs from Eminönü through Cibali, Fener and Balat to here. Step off and walk straight to the mosque courtyard — five minutes. Cover up before you arrive; this is a working religious site, not a museum.

2. Eyüp Sultan Camii
One of the four holiest mosques in Sunni Islam, built by Mehmed the Conqueror in 1458 over the tomb of Eyüp Ensari, the Prophet's companion who fell at the seventh-century siege of Constantinople. The current building is the 1800 rebuild after earthquakes. Friday midday prayers fill the courtyard; off-Friday afternoons it's quiet enough to circle slowly.

3. The cemetery path
The climb up. Ottoman tombstones line both sides — five centuries of calligraphic headstones, the men's turban-topped, the women's flower-carved. Most visitors take the teleferik straight to the top and miss this entirely. Take twenty minutes; read the dates as you climb.

4. Pierre Loti Kahvesi
The wooden café at the summit, named for the French novelist who haunted an earlier version of it a century ago. The terrace is what you came for — the Golden Horn laid out below, the domes of Süleymaniye and Fatih Camii on the far shore. Order a çay; sit on the wooden rail; let the climb settle.

5. Teleferik (TF2)
The cable car saves the descent — five minutes down to the mosque area, runs every few minutes between roughly 8am and 11pm. Take it down if the climb's tired you, or walk back through the cemetery if your knees disagree with that suggestion.

6. Eyüp İskelesi
The ferry pier. Haliç Hattı boats to Eminönü leave every twenty to thirty minutes — forty unhurried minutes back along the Golden Horn, the same water the pilgrims have been looking at for centuries. Standing room on the upper deck.

Eyüp Sultan to Pierre Loti: mosque, cemetery, view