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Üsküdar,
once known as Scutari, is a large
district on the Asian
shore of the
Bosphorus in metropolitan Istanbul.
For visitors to Istanbul, Üsküdar is
important for its mosques and its transport
possibilities.
The ferry docks are
prominent all along the shore of the Üsküdar plaza:
the IDO ferries, the TurYol ferries
and the Dentur Avrasya ferries going
to Eminönü, Karaköy,
Kabatas and Besiktas.
Just inland from the ferry docks are
numerous bus and minibus stops and
taxi stands good for trips
north and south along the Bosphorus shore, and eastward into Istanbul's
Anatolian suburbs.
Not too far south along the shore
is the Harem Otogar, with intercity
buses to all of Anatolian
Turkey and
beyond.
At the moment the expansive plaza
of Üsküdar is
filled with fences, temporary barriers,
trucks and excavation equipment constructing
the huge Marmaray railway
project which will bring a train line
beneath the Bosphorus, connecting the
European and Asian shores of Turkey
by rail for the first time.
The mosques include the Mihrimah
Sultan Camii (1547), a work
designed the great Mimar
Sinan for Mihrimah Sultan,
the daughter of Sultan
Süleyman
the Magnificent. The mosque
is on the north side of the plaza,
and north of the mosque itself is
its Dar-üs Sifa, or
Health Center. You enter this building
by a doorway that could have come
from Seljuk
Turkish times, but when
you get inside you find a shiny,
ultra-modern up-to-the-minute medical
clinic—a wonderful continuation
of usage of an ancient building with
modern technology.
On the southern side of the plaza is
the Yeni Valide Camii (or
Valide-i Cedid
Camii, "New Mosque of
the Queen Mother," 1710) a later Ottoman
mosque that's part of a full mosque
complex (külliye) including
several other charitable service buildings.
The Queen Mother of the mosque's name,
by the way, was Gülnüs Emetullah
Hatun, mother of Sultan Ahmet III.
Inland up a hill is the charming small Tiled
Mosque (Çinili
Cami), well worth a visit to see
its exquisite Iznik
colored tiles,
especially if you have not visited
the even more exquisite Rüstem
Pasha Mosque near the Egyptian
(Spice) Bazaar in Eminönü.
Head south from Üsküdar to
reach Haydarpasa
Station, Istanbul's
terminus for Asian trains, and Kadiköy,
a popular suburb easily reached by
ferry from Eminönü and Karaköy.
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The
New Queen Mother Mosque (Valide-i
Cedid Camii, 1710) in Üsküdar,
Istanbul,
Turkey.
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