Guide
The Hisarlar Museum takes in three fortresses — Rumelihisarı, Yedikulehisari and Anadoluhisari — and the one you visit at Sarıyer is Rumelihisarı, built by Mehmed II in 1452. Its purpose was strategic: when Constantinople was besieged, it would cut off any help reaching the city from the northern end of the Bosphorus and block attacks from that direction. It was raised directly opposite Anadoluhisari in about four months, covers some thirty donums, and consists of three great towers and the walls between them. The timber came from İzmit and Karadeniz Ereğli, the stone from various parts of Anatolia, and spolia were taken from ruined Byzantine buildings nearby.
There are four main gates — the Mountain Gate, the Dizdar Gate, the Hisarpece Gate and the Flood Gate — and a secondary one, the Cemetery Gate. Of the four towers, three are large, named for Saruca Pasha, Halil Pasha and Zağanos Pasha, and one smaller is called the Little Zağanos; there are thirteen bastions of various sizes. Know what kind of museum this is before going: the display is in the garden and in the open air, and there is no indoor exhibition hall or store. Shown outside are cannon, cannonballs, terracotta and stone pieces, and a length of the chain said to have closed the Golden Horn. An open-air theatre was added during restoration, and in summer the Ministry allocates the fortress to various institutions for events. Take the İETT buses from Beşiktaş.
