What you see on a Bosphorus cruise, from start to finish

A Bosphorus cruise from the old city is a slow loop: up one continent and back down the other. Knowing what is coming makes it easier to be on the right side of the boat at the right moment.

Leaving the old city

Boats leaving from below Sultanahmet first show you the old city from the sea: the walls and terraces of Topkapı Palace on the point, the domes and minarets of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque behind them. Across the mouth of the Golden Horn rises the round Galata Tower, built by the Genoese in 1348.

The palaces of the European shore

Heading north, the European shore turns imperial. Dolmabahçe Palace, completed in 1856, presents its long white façade to the water; a little further on is Çırağan, rebuilt for Sultan Abdülaziz in the 1860s and now a hotel.

Then comes the view everyone waits for: Ortaköy Mosque at the water’s edge, with the first Bosphorus bridge — today the 15 July Martyrs Bridge — spanning the sky behind it.

The narrows and the fortresses

Past the villages of Arnavutköy and Bebek the strait tightens. Here the two fortresses face each other: Rumeli Hisarı, built by Mehmed II in 1452, climbing the European hillside, and the older Anadolu Hisarı on the Asian shore. Just beyond them, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge crosses the water.

Down the Asian shore and home

The return runs along the greener Asian side: the little Küçüksu Pavilion, wooden yalı mansions, the summer palace of Beylerbeyi below the first bridge. The last landmark before the pier is the Maiden’s Tower on its islet off Üsküdar, often lit gold by the late sun.

Weather, current and harbour traffic can change the route on the day; the captain decides.