The Golden Horn, also known by its modern Turkish name as Haliç, is a major
urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey.
Notably falcate and anfractuous, this prominent waterbody is a horn-shaped
estuary that joins Bosphorus Strait at the immediate point where said strait
meets the Sea of Marmara, thus forming a narrow, isolated peninsula, the tip of
which is "Old Istanbul", and the promontory of Sarayburnu, or Seraglio
Point. The Golden Horn geographically separates the historic center of
Istanbul from the rest of the city, and forms a natural, sheltered harbor that
has historically protected Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other maritime
trade ships for thousands of years. While the reference to a "horn" is
understood to refer to the inlet's general shape, the significance of the
designation "golden" is more obscure, with historians believing it to refer to
either the riches brought into the city through the bustling historic harbor
located along its shores, or to romantic artistic interpretations of the rich
yellow light blazing upon the estuary's waters as the sun sets over the city.
Its Greek and English names mean the same, while its Turkish name, Haliç,
simply means "estuary", and is derived from the Arabic word khaleej, meaning
"gulf". Throughout its storied past, the Golden
Horn has witnessed many tumultuous historical incidents, and its dramatic
vistas have been the subject of countless works of art.
Description The Golden Horn is the estuary of the
Alibeyköy and Kağıthane Rivers. It is 7.5 kilometers long, and 750 meters
across at its widest. Its maximum depth, where it flows into the Bosphorus, is
about 35 meters. At present, the Golden Horn is spanned
by five bridges. Moving from upstream to downstream, these are as follows:
The first crossing is the Haliç Bridge, completed in 1974, which connects the
neighborhoods of Sütlüce and Defterdar. The second is the now-defunct Eski
Galata Bridge, literally Old Galata Bridge, which used to connect the
downstream neighborhoods of Karaköy and Eminönü, but was disassembled and
relocated upstream between Ayvansaray and Keçeci Piri following extensive
damage in 1992 caused by a fire originating in the kitchen of one of the
restaurants located on the bridge's lower level. Originally dating back to
1912, the now-retired structure is no longer used for vehicular or pedestrian
traffic, but functions as a seasonal outdoor exhibit and event space attached
to Haliç Park. The third is the Atatürk Bridge, aka
Unkapanı Bridge, completed in 1940, which connects Kasımpaşa and Unkapanı.
The fourth is the Golden Horn Metro Bridge - a pedestrianized railway
crossing, completed in 2014, that extends subway line M2 of the Istanbul
Metro across the Golden Horn. The fifth bridge is the fifth and most
current incarnation of Galata Bridge, completed in 1994, that runs between
Karaköy and Eminönü. History
Archaeological records show a significant urban presence on and around
the Golden Horn dating back to at least the 7th century BCE, with smaller
settlements going as far back as 6700 BCE as confirmed by recent discoveries
of ancient ports, storage facilities, and fleets of trade ships unearthed
during the construction works of the Yenikapı subway station and the Marmaray
tunnel project. Indeed, the deep natural harbor provided
by the Golden Horn has always been a major economic attraction and strategic
military advantage for inhabitants of the area, and the Eastern Roman
colonizers that established Nova Roma along its shores, which became, in
order, Byzantium, Constantinople, and ultimately, Istanbul, were no different.
The Byzantine Empire had its naval headquarters there, and walls were built
along the shoreline to protect the city of Constantinople from naval attacks. At
the entrance to the Horn on the northern side, a large chain was pulled across
from Constantinople to the old Tower of Galata to prevent unwanted ships from
entering. Known among the Byzantines as the Megàlos Pyrgos, this tower was
largely destroyed by the Latin Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. In
1348, the Genoese built a new tower nearby which they called Christea
Turris, now called Galata Tower. There were three notable times when the
chain across the Horn was either broken or circumvented. In the 10th century the
Kievan Rus' dragged their longships out of the Bosphorus, around Galata, and
relaunched them in the Horn; the Byzantines defeated them with Greek
fire. In 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, Venetian ships were able to
break the chain with a ram. In 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, having failed
in his attempt to break the chain with brute force, instead used the same
tactic as the Rus', towing his ships across Galata over greased logs and into
the estuary. After the conquest of Constantinople in
1453, Mehmed II resettled ethnic Greeks along the Horn in the Phanar. Balat
continued to be inhabited by Jews, as during the Byzantine age, though many
Jews decided to leave following the takeover of the city. This area was
repopulated when Bayezid II invited the Jews who were expelled from Spain to
resettle in Balat. In 1502, Leonardo da Vinci produced a
drawing of a single-span 240-metre bridge over the Golden Horn as part of a
civil engineering project for Sultan Bayezid II. Leonardo's drawings and
notes regarding this bridge are currently displayed at the Museo della
Scienza e della Tecnologia in Milan, Italy. While the original design was
never executed, the vision of Leonardo's Golden Horn Bridge was resurrected in
2001, when a small footbridge based on Leonardo's design was constructed near
Ås in Norway. Until the 1980s, the Horn was polluted
with industrial waste from the factories, warehouses, and shipyards
along its shores. It has since been cleaned, and the local fish, wildlife,
and flora have been largely restored. Nowadays, the Golden Horn is settled on
both sides, and there are parks along each shore. The Istanbul Chamber of
Commerce is also located along the shore, as are several Muslim, Jewish and
Christian cemeteries. Today, the Horn's rich history and
natural beauty make it a hugely popular tourist attraction in Istanbul, visited
by 10 million international vacationers annually.
In popular culture The Golden Horn is featured in many
works of literature dealing with classical themes. For example, G. K.
Chesterton's poem Lepanto contains the memorable couplet "From evening isles
fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun, / And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is
laughing in the sun." Image gallery
See also Atatürk Bridge
Galata Bridge Galata Tower
Metro Bridge Haliç Bridge
References External links
Golden Horn Golden Horn University
The Social Community of Golden Horn The Leonardo Bridge Project
Ferries in Istanbul