 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Sarayburnu" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Sarayburnu (Turkish:Sarayburnu, meaningPalace Cape; known in English as theSeraglio Point) is apromontory quarter separating theGolden Horn and theSea of Marmara inIstanbul, Turkey. The area is where theTopkapı Palace andGülhane Park stand. Sarayburnu is included in thehistoric areas of Istanbul, added to theUNESCOWorld Heritage List in 1985.[1]
The first settlement on the Sarayburnu goes back toNeolithic,c. 6600 BC.[2][3][4] The settlement lasted for almost a millennium before being inundated by the rising level of the sea; however, it might have been moved further inland.[2] The artifacts from this settlement recovered during excavations display some of the distinct features of other artifacts found in other excavations in northwestern Turkey.[2]
Another settlement on the Sarayburnu, namedLygos, was founded byThracian tribes between the 13th and 11th centuries BC, along with the neighbouring Semistra,[5] whichPliny the Elder had mentioned in his historical accounts. Only a few walls and substructures belonging to Lygos have survived to date, near the location where the famousTopkapı Palace now stands. During the period of ancientByzantium, theAcropolis used to stand where the Topkapı Palace stands today.
According to a legend, in 667 BC ancientGreek settlers fromMegara (near Athens) under the command of KingByzas established Byzantium at the Sarayburnu. Previously, in 685 BC, the Megarans had establishedChalcedon (present-dayKadıköy) on theAnatolian shore, across theBosporus. Actually the oldest settlements in present-day Istanbul are found on the Anatolian side; such as the Fikirtepe mound which dates from theChalcolithic period (Copper Age), with artifacts dating from 5500 to 3500 BC. In nearby Kadıköy (ancient Chalcedon), a large port settlement dating from thePhoenicians (which predates the Megaran settlement) has been discovered.
In antiquity there were two natural harbours in the area close to Sarayburnu where the present-daySirkeci andEminönü quarters stand (the harbours ofProsphorion andNeorion, which scooped into the coastline of theGolden Horn.) Because of this formation, the point of Sarayburnu was more conspicuous than it is today. In later periods the area was the convergence point for theSea Walls of the Golden Horn and theSea of Marmara. In theByzantine period, the area was known inGreek as Hagios Demetrios.
During the railway construction of the lateOttoman period, in 1871, the city walls of the Sarayburnu area were partially demolished, but they are still intact in some areas - especially close to the Topkapı Palace, which was built in the 15th century for theOttoman Sultans. The notableGülhane Park is located right next to the palace.
41°01′01″N28°59′11″E / 41.0169°N 28.9864°E /41.0169; 28.9864
