| Most
of Istanbul’s children do not realise that Hans Andersen, whose stories
have opened |
| the
doors to world of fantasy, visited Istanbul. The Danish writer describes
his first sight of |
| the
city with a metaphor worthy of a story teller, likening each mosque
with its dome and |
| minarets
to Noah’s Ark. Istanbul is a city of minarets, lighthouses and towers,
one being |
| Maiden’s
Tower (Kýz Kulesi) on an islet at the mouth of the Bosphorus which
serves as a |
| lighthouse,
although Hans Andersen does not tell us about his first impression
of this tower. |
| Yet
Maiden’s Tower is the building reminiscent above all of the Ark, standing
as it does in |
| the
middle of the sea and greeting passing ships. I myself liken it to
a hair slide preventing |
| Istanbul’s
hair from impeding shipping through the Bosphorus, and Istanbul to
a mother |
| rocking
her child to sleep on a suspension bridge, in which case Maiden’s
Tower becomes |
| a baby’s
bottle placed in water to cool the milk.The nearest towers to Maiden’s
Tower are |
| those
of Selimiye Barracks, which looks like an upside down billiard table.
These towers |
| have
never guided ships at sea; instead their light is that of Florence
Nightingale, who |
| reformed
the British hospital here during the Crimean War, and revolutionised
the nursing |
| profession. |
|
| The
Lady of the Lamp hurried from one tower of the barracks to another,
relieving the |
| suffering
of the wounded. Visitors who arrive in Istanbul by sea usually unknowingly
pass |
| by another
tower associated with caring for the sick: the Physician’s Tower at
Topkapý |
| Palace.In
the past ships sailing out into the Marmara Sea would stop off the
tiny island of |
| Sivriada
and the captain would look not ahead, but back at Selimiye Barracks,
in order to |
| line
up the flagpole in the stern with the towers of Selimiye and the summit
of Çamlýca Hill. |
| The
rudder would then be turned in this direction, and if the ship kept
on a straight course |
| it would
eventually find itself entering the mouth of Çanakkale Strait, which
leads out of the |
| Marmara
into the Aegean. So the towers of Selimiye Barracks were like a signpost
for |
| mariners.Another
signpost is Galata Tower. On traffic signs a white arrow on a blue |
| ground
indicates a one-way street, and Galata Tower is like an arrow pointing
up into the |
| sky.
The 17th century scholar Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi was the first person
to realise what |
| the
tower meant, and making himself a pair of wings leapt off the parapet
of the tower and |
| glided
to a safe landing on the far shore of the Bosphorus. |
|
| In
one of his poems, painter and poet Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu acts as matchmaker
for the |
| Maiden’s
and Galata towers, declaring that if the Maiden’s Tower had any sense
it would |
| marry
the Galata Tower and bear a brood of children! However, shortly after
Eyuboðlu |
| took up
this matter in his poem, he proposed that the Galata Tower take a
European bride, |
| the Eiffel
Tower. This second match took place, and the Galata Tower and Eiffel
Tower |
| gave birth
to the cluster of radio transmittors on Çamlýca Hill, which are as
shapely as |
| their mother
and as tall as their father!Beyazýt Tower is the world’s largest monument
to . |
| peace
Yes, you have not misheard me, so let me explain. The tower was designed
by the |
| architect
Senekerim Balyan as a fire tower, where lookouts kept watch over Istanbul
night |
| and
day and signalled to the fire brigade when they saw flames.Balyan
was inspired by |
| the shape
of Ottoman cannon, and built a tower that exactly resembled one. Since
a |
| weapon turned
vertically upwards is a sign of surrender, the tower can be regarded
as the |
| largest and
perhaps the first monument to peace ever built.The towers of Kuleli
Military |
| High School
are like two brothers holding hands and wearing conical caps made
of |
| newspaperto
protect them from the sun who have gone down to the Bosphorus shore
to |
| catch
fish. Haydarpaþa Station, on the other hand, is Istanbul’s tower gate
into Anatolia. |
| Many
people arriving from the provinces to Istanbul for the first
time by train have first |
| seen
the sea, seagulls, and smoking ferry funnels from this gate between
its two towers. |
| |
| Sultan
Abdülhamid II built clock towers in many towns around Turkey, and
Istanbul got its |
| full
share with three; the Dolmabahçe, Yýldýz and Tophane clock towers.
However, since |
| these
are not situated in busy parts of the city, it is rare to find anyone
arranging to meet |
| beneath
them. Still these towers are important when it comes to telling the
time in Istanbul. |
| Indeed,
you can work out the time without even looking at the dials. How?
By looking at the |
| shadows
the towers throw. Then there are the church towers, which in the company
of |
| minarets
reach into the sky like compass points to draw a world of friendship
and |
| brotherhood.
In class pupils raise their hands to ask permission to speak, and
a city with |
| towers
must have something to say too. So listen to Istanbul and hear the
stories it has to |
| tell. |
