Eminönü İlçesinin İngilizce Tanıtımı

Eminönü İlçesinin İngilizce Tanıtımı



Eminönü is a district of Istanbul in Turkey, stretching from the mouth of the Bosphorus, where it has ferry crossings to the Asian shore and the Prince’s Islands up the hill to Sultanahmet, the main tourist destination in Istanbul. This is the heart of the walled city of Constantine, the focus of a history of incredible richness, the point where the Golden Horn and the mouth of the Bosphorus open into the Marmara Sea. The Golden Horn was a natural port, particularly the Eminönü/Sirkeci shore, which being on a peninsula was also eminently defensible. It was for this port that İstanbul was built, and from here that İstanbul grew, with the oldest neighbourhoods being the port districts along the Golden Horn. In time the Byzantine port was also occupied by merchants from Genoa and Pisa, who eventually acquired their own wharfs and waterfront districts.
The Golden Horn was still a thriving port in Ottoman times, occupied by importers, warehousemen, sailors and traders of every description, the centre of trade in the city, a labryinth of narrow streets wokshops and markets leading uphill to Topkapi Palace, the Ottoman capital. The district’s name, Eminōnū, also reflects its’ place in history. Translated from Turkish to English it roughly means ‘in front of justice’. Emin meaning ‘justice’, ōnū meaning ‘in front of’. While the exact root of the name is uncertain, some Ottoman historians believe the name was given because the most important Ottoman courts were in the area. To this day many important governmental buildings are found in the neighborhood, including the municipality of Istanbul’s headquarters.

The nature of the palace did of course change in the industrial age; the Galata Bridge was built across the Golden Horn; steamships came, then electricity, then the railway and the Istanbul terminal of the Orient Express was naturally sited at Sirkeci Station. The sea walls still surrounded the city, and the sea gates of the port of Eminonu were the point of entry for goods, and for people.

Following the huge railway station, other grand stone buildings followed in the late Ottoman period, commercial buildings, the central post office among others. And in the early days of the Turkish Republic, Eminönü was renovated extensively; the big square was opened up in front of Yeni Cami (by clearing out the tollbooths at the end of the Galata Bridge); The Spice bazaar was restored; the fish market was cleared off the shore of the Golden Horn and a road opened up to the new bridge at Unkapanı. By the 1950s, the area was continuously clogged up with traffic, which was eased somewhat by the construction of the large coast road around the point and all the way out to Istanbul airport.
Although Istanbul has expanded rapidly to becoming the enormous city we have today, and the centre of the business world is now in huge shiny buildings elsewhere in the city, Eminönü is still buzzing, still has the busiest ferry crossings for the Bosphorus and for the Marmara Sea, still has the only car ferry across the Bosphorus and still has the only mainline railway terminus (where trains can be caught to Eastern Thrace (Trakya) and Europe) Eminönü has many historical mosques and buildings such as the Yeni Mosque, one of Istanbul’s landmarks. Recent development has improved Eminonu greatly and many of its winding streets which can at first seem imposing have been developed and improved.
Sub-districts (semt) of Eminönü include Sirkeci – the waterfront by the railway station where all the ferries dock; Çağloğlu -Istanbul’s Fleet Street – a maze of printers, booksellers and traditionally newspapers; Sultanahmet – which contains Topkapı Palace, Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque among about a thousand other incredible pieces of architecture; Süleymaniye – the huge mosque complex of Suleyman the Magnificent; Beyazıt -the home of Istanbul University and the far end of the Grand Bazaar; Laleli – buzzing with hotels, bars and people from Eastern Europe buying discount clothing; Kumkapı – the fish market and restaurants about as numerous as the fish themselves.Several public transport lines like buses, tram (known as the “Tramvay” in Istanbul, light metro (Which starts at Aksaray, some distance walk from Eminonu but can be reached by taking the Tramvay to Yusuf Pasa and then changing train (there is no extra cost for changing from tramvay to metro in Istanbul), ferryboat (there are boats to almost all destinations from Eminonu, boats leave to Kadikoy and Uskudar on the Asian side, the Islands, Karakoy, Beykoz, Eyup and Sile) and sea bus have stations here.Meanwhile,Eminonu has started to repair all mosques