There are so many things to see and do in Istanbul, it is the most enchanting city. One of the best trips that the Beetle made was a trip up the Bosphorus. The Bosphorus is a strait of water separating the European and the Asian parts of Istanbul. It is 35 km (20 miles) long and connects the Marmara Sea at the south to the Black Sea in the north.

A bit of history about the name: the English name comes from a Greek legend concerning Zeus who had an affair with a beautiful women called Io. When Hera, Zeus’ wife discovered his infidelity, she turned Io into a cow and created a cloud of flies to sting her on the backside. Io jumped across the strait and the name Bosphorus is said to mean the ‘crossing-place of the cow.’

There are many interesting places you can see from the Bosphorus, including the Topkapi Palace and the Camii Yeni, the New Mosque of the Sultan’s mother, which was begun in 1615, on the model of the Ahmet I Mosque, for Ahmet’s mother but completed only in 1663. – see picture above.

As you leave the main part of Istanbul and travel up the Bosphorus towards the Black Sea, one of the first things you see is the Rumeli Hisari fortress built under the orders of the Conqueror Mehmet in 1452 to control commercial and military traffic in preparation for the siege of siege of Constantinople. Some guides say that the fortress was used as a rather impressive Bosphorus toll booth, then as a barracks, later as a prison, and finally as an open-air theatre, but never again as a fortress.

Continuing to travel up the Bosphorus, you pass under the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge. This bridge is named after the Turkish conquer of Constantinople (Fatih means “conqueror”) in 1453. It spans the Bosphorus at its narrowest point—where it is only 0.5 mi. [0.66 km.] wide.

Continuing up the Bosphorus you can see the Beylerbeyi, a summer palace built in the 1860s.

Throughout the entire trip you can see beautiful old wooden houses, called Yalis, palaces, mosques and a couple of forts. Then there is a mixture of stately homes and summer houses and fishing villages. Below is a selection of photos showing some of the scenery along the banks of the Bosphorus.

The end of the trip up the Bosphorus culminates at Rumeli Kavagi and Anadolu Kavagi about 10 km (6 miles) south of the Black Sea, though you can see the Black Sea in the distance. If you take the traditional ferry’s Bosphorus tour to Anadolu Kavagi, you have three hours to walk, explore, have lunch until the ferry’s departure for the return to Istanbul.

As an alternative, it is possible to get off the boat in Sariyer, have lunch, then take a bus, coach or taxi south along the shore back to Istanbul. A timetable of ferries can be found here. The Beetle took a few hours to have a very tasty lunch and explore the ruins of the fortress on Anadolu Kavagi which date back to 1350 and was originally built by the Genoese. The pictures above show some scenes from Anadolu Kavagi and its fortress.