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©TIE
2004-2008
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Sirkeci means "vinegar-maker/seller"
in Turkish, but this district between
Sultanahmet and Eminönü, very near
Galata
Bridge and the Golden
Horn,
is known not for its vinegar but for
its hotels, restaurants and transportation.
It's transportation that
made Sirkeci what
it is. The Ottoman sultan built
Istanbul's
European railroad terminus, Sirkeci
Gar, on the Golden
Horn right beneath
the walls of Topkapi
Palace, and soon
the elegant sleeping and dining cars
of the Orient
Express were disgorging
their distinguished passengers into
the hubbub of cosmopolitan Constantinople.
After the station came the passengers,
and when the passengers began to arrive,
hotels were built to shelter them.
No Ottoman-era hotels survive, but
the spirit of hospitality is alive
and well in Sirkeci as modern hoteliers
have restored Ottoman-era buildings and constructed modern
hotels to receive
all the travelers crowding into Istanbul
and wanting to stay in the historic
heart of the city.
Sirkeci's
hotels offer
the advantages of being only a 10-
or 12-minute walk (or a short tram
ride) from Sultanahmet,
an even shorter walk to the Eminönü
ferry docks, Egyptian
(Spice) Bazaar and the Galata
Bridge over the Golden
Horn. In general, prices for Sirkeci
hotels are lower than
comparable hotels in other districts
bordering
Sultanahmet (such
as Cankurtaran, Binbirdirek
and Küçük Ayasofya) just
because Sirkeci is
the newcomer to the Sultanahmet hotel
scene.
Sirkeci
Station still stands
in all its Ottoman glory, and still
serves as the terminus for trains
to and from
Europe, though there
are fewer trains today, and none are
elegant. More important to the city's
transport system are the suburban
trains (banliyö trenleri) that
depart every 15 or 20 minutes to round
Seraglio Point and
skirt the Sea
of Marmara on their way westward
to Halkali, beyond Istanbul's Byzantine
Land Walls and Atatürk
Airport.
The Zeytinburnu-Kabatas
tram passes
right in front of Sirkeci Station and
through the hotel
district, connecting
the Sirkeci district with Sultanahmet,
the Grand
Bazaar, and ultimately
(via Metro)
Atatürk
Airport, and in the other
direction with Karaköy
Square, with its Tünel and
ferry docks, Kabatas and
its ferry docks and funicular to Taksim
Square, and Dolmabahçe Palace.
All this will change in a few years
when the giant Marmaray
rail-tunnel project is
complete. The Marmaray will cross beneath
the Bosphorus,
uniting
Old
Istanbul with the Asian
side of the city at Üsküdar,
and allowing passengers to glide from
Europe to Asia in comfortable trains
in a matter of minutes.
When the project is completed, Sirkeci
Station will be converted to a museum and the district around it will move
upscale from being a transport hub
to being a full-fledged hospitality
and entertainment district.
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