Guide
The Dolmabahçe clock tower stands between the Bezmi Alem Valide Sultan Mosque and the Imperial Gate of Dolmabahçe Palace. It was built for Sultan Abdülhamid II between 1890 and 1895 at a cost of 1,210,550 kuruş.
The palace architect Sarkis Balyan built it in a neo-baroque and empire manner. It is twenty-seven metres high, of four storeys, with ninety-four steps; the floors of the stair landings are laid in coloured stone in geometric patterns. The structure, 8.50 by 8.50 metres with its columns, rests on a marble platform of twelve by twelve metres. On each side of the tower is a flight of six steps, and at the corners stand fountains of two tiers.
There is a clock on each face, of French make. The clock on the sea side is wound separately and the other three together. Fitted by the chief clockmaker Johann Meyer, the Paul Garnier clock was partly converted to an electronic system in 1979 and is in working order.
A model of the Dolmabahçe clock tower stands in the Witness of Time Clock Towers Park at Safranbolu, opened in 2012.
