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Sarıyer
Sarıyer, TurkeyAbout
Sarıyer is the northernmost district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the European side of the city. With a long shore along the water, the district boasts both a beautiful coastline and a lush forest. The Sarıyer district is a huge area consisting of the villages on the European side of the Bosphorus from Rumelifeneri, down through Tarabya, Yeniköy, İstinye, Emirgan to Rumelihisarı. Sarıyer also administers the Black Sea coast to the west of the mouth of the Bosphorus including the village of Kilyos. Its neighbours are Eyüp the northwest, Beşiktaş the south and Şişli the west. The coast road running through Sarıyer is lined with fish restaurants of all kinds, ranging from the most eleg|ant to the, equally delicious, small restaurants, many of which were formerly housed in boats moored by the sea wall. Unfortunately this coast is so popular with day-trippers and Sunday drivers that at weekends the pleasure of a drive along Sarıyer's is mitigated by the crawling queues of traffic. Sarıyer's Bosphorus villages, backed by steep hills, were once rural fishing communities. They later became retreats for the city's wealthy. In the Ottoman period the sultans came to these villages for picnics and excursions. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the coast was lined with summer residences of the wealthy foreign traders of Pera and Galata. Many foreign embassies built summer residences in this period. Since the construction of the coast road, these villages, and increasingly the hillsides behind them, house many expensive villas owned by İstanbul's rich businessmen, actors and musicians, attracted by the coastline and the lush forest behind.
