Camlica Hill

This guide to Çamlıca Hill in Istanbul opens with the view from the city's highest point, where the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara all come into focus at once. It traces why Ottoman sultans retreated here to hunt and think, and why the hilltop became a recurring setting in Turkish poetry for romance and longing. It also follows the more recent story of the Grand Çamlıca Mosque rising beside the old lookout, and the two women who designed it.