748 
ISTANBUL-BOSPHORUS AS OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE, 
THE PROCESS OF CHANGE OVER TIME 
C.Baytin 3 ,C.Canbay Tlirkyilmaz 3 ’, A.Kiran 3 , M.Tunbi? 3 
3 YTU, Architectural Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey - (baytin,ccanbay)@yildiz.edu.tr) 
KEY WORDS: Istanbul, Bosphorus, Cultural Landscape, Sustainability, Common Heritage, Natural-Built Environment and 
Man. 
ABSTRACT: 
In the course of globalisation national identity and local cultural concepts are outstanding items. Landscape is an indicator of 
common heritage as a combination of natural and cultural heritage. Bosphorus of Istanbul is an organically evolving landscape with 
its continuing and associative cultural landscape properties. In this paper, the changing process of man-made and natural 
environmental relationships of the cultural landscape of Bosphorus is searched in terms of sustainable land use. Four groves from 
Bosphorus are selected as case studies for this purpose. These examples are studied in terms of documentation as a first step to 
develop and to rehabilitate cultural landscape areas. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The Bosphorus is a strait of 20 km long and 1 to 1.5 km wide in 
Istanbul between the two continents of Asia and Europe, 
connecting the Black Sea with the Marmara. Due to the 
topography, both sides of the strait are covered with hills 
sometimes punctuated with valleys giving the opportunity of 
exceptional views from both sides. The seaside residences 
stretching in an almost unbroken line along the whole length of 
the seashore and their unique architecture together with the 
natural environment makes Bosphorus a waterway of beauty 
attracting the foreigners as well as the citizens themselves. In 
this context, Bosphorus cultural landscape which is the 
interaction of natural and man-made features needs a detailed 
documentation, maintenance, management and development 
procedures in order to continue to serve as an essential cultural 
living area of the inhabitants. 
2. DEVELOPMENT PROCESS 
The old settlements of Bosphorus were situated on the planes 
where the streams flowed to the sea. The inhabitants of these 
villages mostly lived on fishing and producing vegetables and 
garden crops. The Bosphorus, with its bays, woods, meadows 
and streams (on which sailing on row boats-caiques-was the 
main pleasure) was Istanbul’s residents’ place for recreation. In 
time, the waterfront began to be adorned with palaces and 
residences of wealthy inhabitants. At first, these were built and 
used as summer residences only, later with the development of 
transport between the two shores and the city centre most of 
them began to be used permanently. With their perfect 
proportions and unique architecture, these waterfront buildings 
together with the natural vegetation surrounding them added 
new beauties to the exceptional scenery of the Bosphorus. As 
they sometimes formed a continuous line on both sides of the 
strait they were described as “pearls of necklace”. Apart from 
the waterfront buildings, sometimes small kiosks were built on 
the slopes in woods with the colours of their facades contrasting 
with those of the vegetation as punctuating elements giving 
variety to whole scene. This extraordinary combination 
blending the architectural buildings with nature was at its peak 
in the middle of the 19 th century. Unfortunately, with the 
beginning of 20 th century and especially after the First World 
War, industrialization, rapid and unplanned, uncontrolled, 
unhealthy urbanization due to false planning and political 
decisions have changed the once balanced unity of the built 
environment and natural one. 
Figure 1. The Bosphorus