Reading list | Kuruçeşme

The first Bosphorus village on the European shore, north of the First Bosphorus Bridge. Before the First World War, this mile-long stretch boasted the most beautiful row of waterside palaces in the entire Ottoman world, that in their heyday must have rivalled Venice's Grand Canal. Sadly, they were all destroyed in the early 20th century, many of them replaced by coal bunkers. Clubland took over in the 1990s, which was hardly better, but two yalıs have since been rebuilt, and it is after all a good place to park your yacht (dresscode applies).