Metravel city quest
City Istanbul: free walking route “quest: Galata and Karaköy” along the sights. 9 points. Approximately 2 h 30 min. Quests and legends - straight from your
Every great city has a double. Imperial Istanbul, with its palaces, domes and minarets, had one directly opposite, across the Golden Horn. They called it the ‘other shore’: in Greek, Pera, ‘the other side’.
Everything here was different from the sultans' city. From the 13th century, this hill held a Genoese colony: Italian merchants who surrounded their district with walls and a tower. Then came everyone for whom the empire was home, but not their homeland: Greek and Jewish bankers, Levantine merchants, Armenian architects, European ambassadors. Here opened the first banks, first theatres, first shopping arcades and the continent's first underground railway. While people on the opposite shore prayed and ruled, people here counted money, built, debated art and drank coffee looking out over someone else's empire.
If you have already followed our first Istanbul route, ‘City of Three Empires’ on Sultanahmet hill, you have seen the Istanbul of rulers. Today you will see the Istanbul of foreigners: the route leads uphill from the fishing bridge, past the Genoese tower to Pera's grand main street and Republic Square.
What to do: 1) Read the story and task at each stop. 2) Find the place on the map and walk to it. 3) Look around and answer the question.
This walking route is about three kilometres long, with one noticeable climb — wear comfortable shoes. We start on Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn: walk onto its upper deck and head towards the middle. Let's go!
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
You are standing on a boundary. Behind you to the left is the old imperial city: Hagia Sophia, Topkapı, the minarets of Sultanahmet.
Leave the bridge on the Galata bank — you are in Karaköy, the former port of Genoese Galata — and climb to Bankalar Caddesi, the ‘Street of Banks’, parallel to the waterfront.
Climb the Camondo Stairs and continue up the lanes; they will lead you to the space at the foot of a stone giant. This is Galata Tower, older than many countries: the Genoese built it in 1348 as the main tower of their colony's defences and called it Christea Turris, ‘Tower of Christ’.
An optional stop — admission is paid, but beyond the modest gates lies one of the quietest places in noisy Beyoğlu. From the tower, go down Galip Dede Caddesi.
You are on little Tünel Square, and beneath your feet is a record-holder. Here is the upper station of the underground Tünel funicular, opened on 17 January 1875.
Follow İstiklal towards Taksim, past the embassy mansions, arcades and cafés of the ‘Great Street of Pera’. A few hundred metres on, set back in a courtyard behind an ornate fence, a façade appears as though transported from Venice: pointed arches, a rose window, deep crimson walls.
Continue along İstiklal past the wrought-iron gates of Galatasaray High School. Just beyond the square, look for an elegant façade with sculptures and a tall entrance arch.
Do not go far: walk around the arcade, and a covered market plunges into Sahne Sokağı right behind it. This is Balık Pazarı, Galatasaray's old market and the stomach of the entire district.
Return to İstiklal and follow it all the way to the end. The street will deliver you onto enormous Taksim Square, the main square of modern Istanbul.
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.