Istanbul Trip Part 12: Galata Towers

When we arrived at our hotel, the PR exec told us that there is this tower where you can get quite a complete view of Istanbul City...

So Max thought we should pay it a visit... so we walked through Taksim Square along İstiklal Avenue and ended up HERE :)

 Welcome to Galatta Towers... also known as the Tower Of Christ..

 Tried to take a photo of the sign.. BUT HOR.. i cannot make head or tail out of the sign leh... Only understood "Sultan Mahmede"... hahahaha..

So here is more info from WIKI.. wahhahaha


"The Galata Tower (Galata Kulesi in Turkish) — called Christea Turris (the Tower of Christ in Latin) by the Genoese — is a medieval stone tower in the Galata/Karaköy quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, just to the north of the Golden Horn's junction with the Bosphorus. One of the city's most striking landmarks, it is a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline and offers a panoramic vista of Istanbul's historic peninsula and its environs.

The nine-story tower is 66.90 meters tall (62.59 m without the ornament on top, 51.65 m at the observation deck), and was the city's tallest structure when it was built. The elevation at ground level is 35 meters above sea-level. The tower has an external diameter of 16.45 meters at the base, an 8.95 meters diameter inside, and walls that are 3.75 meters thick.

There is a restaurant and café on its upper floors which command a magnificent view of Istanbul and the Bosphorus. Also located on the upper floors is a night club which hosts a Turkish show. There are two operating elevators that carry visitors from the lower level to the upper levels.

The tower was built as Christea Turris (Tower of Christ) in 1348 during an expansion of the Genoese colony in Constantinople.The Galata Tower was the tallest building in Istanbul at 219½ feet (66.9 m) when it was built in 1348.[2] It was built to replace the old Tower of Galata, an original Byzantine tower named Megalos Pyrgos (English: Great Tower) which controlled the northern end of the massive sea chain that closed the entrance to the Golden Horn. That tower was on a different site and was largely destroyed in 1203, during the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204.[3]

The upper section of the tower with the conical cap was slightly modified in several restorations during the Ottoman period when it was used as an observation tower for spotting fires.

According to the Seyahatname of Ottoman historian and traveller Evliya Çelebi, in circa 1630-1632, Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi flew as an early intercontinental aviator using artificial wings for gliding from this tower over the Bosphorus to the slopes of Üsküdar on the Anatolian side, nearly six kilometres away.[4] Evliyâ Çelebi also tells of Hezarfen's brother, Lagari Hasan Çelebi, performing the first flight with a rocket in a conical cage filled with gunpowder in 1633.

Starting from 1717 the Ottomans began to use the tower for spotting fires in the city. In 1794, during the reign of Sultan Selim III, the roof of the tower made of lead and wood, and the stairs were severely damaged by a fire. Another fire damaged the building in 1831, upon which a new restoration work took place.

In 1875, during a storm, the conic roof on the top of the building was destroyed[citation needed]. The tower remained without this conic roof for the rest of the Ottoman period. Many years later, in 1965-1967, during the Turkish Republic, the original conical cap was restored[citation needed]. During this final restoration in the 1960s, the wooden interior of the tower was replaced by a concrete structure and it was commercialized and opened to the public.

The panorama image shown below is composed of ten photos[6] taken from the Galata Tower by the photographic firm of Sébah & Joaillier, and is most likely to have been taken in the 1880s."



View from the bottom of the tower...

 Once you go in, there is this huge bronze (i htink) art piece of the tower in the city and below it are two lifts tat will take you up..

 But leh, for just walking one round and taking some pictures in half an hour or so... I find the ticket price a tad ex...

 This is how my ticket looked like...

Once you get the ticket, you can enter a lift which will take you to the 7th storey where there is a restaurant. I dunno why they dun want to build the lift all the way to the top cos we had to climb another long flight of stairs to reach the viewing area. It is actually a ledge surrounding this restaurant. I find this the most commercial and touristy place we have visited due to the super expensive prices.

 View from the top of the tower...

 Ace says he also want to scratch his name here.. I told him dun vandalize..

 Max is very curious about what goes on at the roof tops and keep asking me to take zoom in pics of the roof tops.. perhaps he hopes one day we can have a nice rooftop like tat:)

 The picture gives you a guide of what you are seeing...

 On the right side the Haggia Soffia... and on the left, I think is Topkapi Palace and the Tower Of Justice..

 Haggia Sofia..

 Sultan Ahmed..

 This is how small the "ledge" is..

 And after going one round... that's it. End of story..

 So we came down and tried to read up about this tower..

 We thought since got time right.. can hurry up and go one more places of interest..

 Taken on our way home..

 Heng ah.. going home is downward slope!:)

 Bought tickets to take tram again..

 View from the tram station..

 Tram is coming! Ace was a little disappointed that this Tram was not the GShock one that we saw.. hahaha.. one of the days, we saw a tram with a GSHOCK and Ace kept saying he wanted to take that tram because got GSHOCK...

You know how in SIngapore you cannot bring durian, cannot bring pets, cannot bring this cannot bring that on the buses and MRT? Here in Turkey, I even saw this woman carrying two bunnies (one on each hand) to wait and board the tram! Too bad I couldnt take pic of her..

 View on the tram.

We finally reached our station and hurriedly got off and tried to cheong to one of the museums we wanted to visit...

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