Istanbul Airport to the Asian side

The woodland on either side is the Belgrade Forest, named after the families resettled here following Süleyman's Belgrade campaign of 1521. These trees are no accident: for centuries the forest was the city's water store. Dams and aqueducts still stand inside it, the greatest being Mimar Sinan's Mağlova Aqueduct, which carries water across a valley two hundred metres wide. This is the answer to why Istanbul took so long to run short of water.

Crossing the middle of the bridge you leave Europe and enter Asia; the water beneath you is the Bosphorus. It is not a river but a valley drowned when sea levels rose: that is why it winds, and why it is so narrow in places. Its narrowest point, south of here between Rumeli Hisarı and Kandilli, is about seven hundred metres. Look right and the strait opens southwards; to your left the water merges into the Black Sea. The rest of the journey happens in Asia.

Past the bridge you are in the least built-up part of the Asian side. Beykoz and its surroundings were imperial hunting grounds under the Ottomans, and that status protected the land for centuries; today's woods are what remains of it. Beykoz was also the centre of a glassmaking tradition that carries its name: pieces from the workshops founded here in the eighteenth century still sit in museums. From here the road descends and the density rises with every kilometre.

Üsküdar's ancient name was Chrysopolis, the Golden City; under the Persians and Romans it was the last stop for caravans out of Anatolia before they crossed the strait. As you near the pier, a small island in the water carries the Maiden's Tower on your right; the present building is nineteenth century, but something has stood on that rock for two thousand four hundred years. The domed building beside the pier is Mimar Sinan's Mihrimah Sultan Mosque. Stopping is prohibited along the waterfront; your driver halts at the nearest legal point to your hotel.