The Bosphorus shore route

On this stretch, where the road narrows to a single lane, the wooden houses on your left are the bay-windowed mansions of Arnavutköy. Built at the end of the nineteenth century, they are the largest surviving group of wooden domestic architecture in Istanbul. The Bosphorus current changes direction precisely here, which makes it one of the best fishing spots; you will see people on the shore with rods. That the traffic slows here is no accident: the road follows a shoreline drawn six hundred years ago.

The castle ahead of you, standing at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus, is Rumeli Fortress. It was built in 1452, just a year before the siege of Constantinople, and in only four months. Its purpose was not conquest but logistics: together with Anadolu Fortress on the opposite shore it closed the strait, cutting off any help reaching Byzantium from the Black Sea. The Bosphorus narrows here to seven hundred metres, which meant the two castles could cover each other by cannon.

Bebek is the only natural bay on the Bosphorus; the shore curves inwards here and the water goes still. That is why it has been a mooring for centuries, and remains one. The park on the waterfront was the garden of the Khedive of Egypt's summer residence in the nineteenth century; the building still stands and serves today as Egypt's consulate in Istanbul. There is almost no parking here, so your car will stop at the address and move off immediately.