Hills

For a coastal city there are a surprising number of hills in Istanbul. Like, seriously. A lot.

Some of the hills go up.

And some go down.

But really most go up.

Which begs the question of why there are so many bike shops here. They're all over the place. Curiously enough (or perhaps not) there aren't many (or in fact any) bike riders. Yet the bike shops persist. Perhaps everyone is going out biking in the countryside? Perhaps they ride their bikes down the hills then take the tram up? This mystery is as yet unsolved.

The original core of Istanbul was actually built on a series of seven hills, which must have delighted Constantine when he was making a new Rome there. Not that there weren't a lot of seven-hilled cities to choose from.

We went up the Galata Tower, down the street from our flat, to take a look at the hills. Unfortunately several hundred years of urbanization have hidden the hills beneath the weight of buildings, but you can find the general outline of the first hill beneath Topkapı (1) and Hagia Sophia (2).

For the sake of completeness, here's a general idea of the location of the hills.

It would appear (from my admittedly very limited exploration) that Istanbul's development as a literal city on a hill has caused the more wealthy areas to emerge on the hills (even beyond the seven original ones). It certainly makes sense from the standpoint of traditional property values - you'll have the best view if your building is actually higher than the surrounding ones. It does give a delicious literal meaning to upper and lower class, though.