Istanbul, Türkiye
Photo: CeeGee, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Rural areas include the Silivri, Çatalca and Arnavutköy districts on the outskirts of Istanbul, share a rich history rooted in rural agriculture and small settlements that have gradually transformed over time.
From the travel guide. Select a place for details, a map and what is nearby.
A small town 40 km west of central Istanbul and 15 km north of Büyükçekmece that had a substantial Greek population until the 1920s transfers. Spared from destruction in the Balkan wars which foreshadowed the Great War, the old quarter has many historic wooden buildings and fountains in leafy squares. A short stretch of the old town walls still stand just north of the centre. In the outer areas, bunkers of the WW2 'Çakmak Line' and remnants of the Byzantine Anastasios Walls could be observed.
Çatalca Exchange Museum / Mübadele Müzesi
The town's main sight, housed in a red brick neoclassical building erected as a Greek tavern, this museum commemorates the forced population transfer of 1922–26, whereby Greeks living in Turkey were expelled to Greece, while the Turks of Greece were expelled to Turkey.
İnceğiz Mağaraları
A Byzantine monastery complex carved into a cliff, set in a lush valley. The site is free, but May-Sept there's a 32 TL toll for cars on the access roads. There's a picnic area, pity about all the trash, and a couple of restaurants nearby.
A remarkable Roman double aqueduct above the village of Gümüşpınar. Here water from two catchments converged then flowed by an upper and lower channel all the way to Constantinople. In 2020 treasure hunters got it into their heads that gold was buried beneath, so they blew it up, incurring substantial damage..
Anastasius Suru, Ἀναστάσειον Τεῖχος
it was a defensive wall built in the 5th century to protect Constantinople from barbarian attack from the west. It ran for 56 km from Evcik on the Black Sea coast right across the Thracian peninsula to Silivri on the Marmara coast. Unlike the better-known Hadrian's Wall in England, it was neither well-constructed nor well-garrisoned, so the barbarians gleefully overran it, and it was abandoned in the 7th century. Much of the stone was looted or recycled for later buildings, and little remains of its southern half. The northern half has lasted better, with little forts and substantial masonry, such as the section leading to Evcik Beach.
Evcik Plajı
A wide, undeveloped sandy beach backed by cliffs, unexpectedly popular during summer weekends despite its relative remoteness. A narrow track steeply descends to it, but it's best to park your car ahead of the slope to avoid climbing back up in reverse. The ruins of the Byzantine church of St George over the bluff mark the northern end of the Anastasian Wall.
formerly Podima
The most interesting of the resorts along this part of the coast. The beach has multi-coloured stones much used as garden mosaics in the city. (Modern quarries nearby still extract these for the Turkish glass industry.) The town has restaurants and accommodation.
formerly Istranca
A village which has accommodation and old wooden houses. Past Binkılıç, the highway eventually reaches Saray in the neighbouring province of Tekirdağ.
Çilingoz Tabiat Parkı
It has a sandy beach backed by forest where a creek runs out. This is as far as you can go in a standard car.
Korsan Koyu
A small and very isolated beach surrounded by rock cliffs.
A relatively developed beach.
A resort on the Marmara coast. It's the westernmost part of Istanbul, between Çatalca and the province of Tekirdağ. There are some remnants of the Anastasian wall here, the scrappy ruins of a castle, an ancient cistern, the Piri Paşa Mosque, and Uzunköprü the long aqueduct.
Germiyan Kilisesi
An early 19th century church built for the local Greek Orthodox 5 km north of Değirmenköy. After they left the area in the 1920s, it served as the village schoolhouse until a landslide in the 1960s forced the relocation of the village to its current location south. Since then, it stands derelict and lonely on an atmospheric hillside, together with the ruins of a 1940s mosque about 100 m to its south — the only remains of the former village.
İki Deniz Arası
A 60-km, 4-day hiking trail between the coasts of the Marmara and Black Seas across the rapidly changing outskirts of the city, passing through various urban, natural, historic, and industrial sites.
A 2,500-km hiking and cycling trail stretching all the way to Vienna, retracing the campaign of Suleiman the Magnificent onto the Habsburg capital. It is not marked on the ground, but the GPS tracks are available through its website. In the east, it kicks off at the mausoleum of Suleiman in Istanbul's Old City, while to the west the next major town is Saray.
A village (and nowadays a commuter suburb) at the edge of the forest, 15 km north of Eyüp and 10 km west of Bahçeköy. Several ancient aqueducts stand nearby, notably Kurt Kemeri ("Wolf's Aqueduct") and Uzun Kemer ("Long Aqueduct"). The oldest were Byzantine, but rebuilt, and others added, in the 16th century to boost the water supply to the city. The residents were Greek until the 1920s population exchange, when Turks from Thessaloniki were re-settled here. Several small eating places in town, but it lacks visitor accommodation. Bus 48 runs here from the city.
A upscale neighborhood with various cafes, pubs and restaurants scattered.
There are cafes, pubs and restaurants along the pier.
A shopping center.
The main roads are D-100, D-200, O-4 (E-80 TEM) and O-7. Only the Arnavutköy area is accessible by metro with M11 line.
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