Göksu and Küçüksu Promenades (MEGT)

Istanbul, Türkiye

Göksu and Küçüksu, which are fed by the streams from Alem Dağı, were recreation areas, where people boated on the river and enjoyed the countryside.

Murad IV had a splendid rose garden made behind the Göksu as well as beautiful pavilions. The watermill provided water for the local people. Evliya Çelebi says that there were gardens on both sides of the Göksu stream which were called the Halıcızade Gardens: In these gardens there were a thousand kitchens and rooms, elegant pavilions with many fountains, pools and statues. He praises this site: They used to row about in boats and picnic on the grass. In former times pitchers and other utensils were made from the red clay here (Seyahatnâmesi, 1:27 and 119–20). Clay pots are still made here.

It is known that there used to be a master gardener's house and some wooden buildings where Göksu Pavilion was.

İnciciyan repeats this information: Beyond Anadoluhisarı is Büyük Göksu. Around Göksu, there are gardens where aubergines, famous for their length and taste, are grown and sent to the city. On a plain near the river, there are many potters’ workshops where large pots are made as well as an imperial watermill for grinding flour for the palace. Küçüksu is a long, level stretch of ground by the seaside near here. Neither of these places is residential. . . . There is a fine grove of cypresses stretching from here to Kandilli. Göksu was given the name ‘Silver Cypress' by Murad IV who liked the place very much. This was the place of the third State Procession of the sultan on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus (XVIII. asırda İstanbul, 104).

At Küçüksu in 1806, Selim III built a fountain in memory of his mother. Near there is the palace built by Abdülmecid in 1857.

Until about 1900, trips to the Göksu stream were very popular; people living on the Bosphorus went there by boat.

The text for this entry is adapted from Nurhan Atasoy, Garden for the Sultan, 320–24.

Source: Travel Account, 17th century

-Nurhan Atasoy, Seyit Ali Kahraman

Resources:

Evliya Çelebi Seyahatnâmesi: Topkapı Sarayı Bağdat 304 Yazmasının transkripsiyonu (Open in Zotero)

XVIII. asırda İstanbul (Open in Zotero)

A Garden for the Sultan: Gardens and Flowers in the Ottoman Culture (Open in Zotero)

Originally published at: Atasoy, Nurhan, and Seyit Ali Kahraman “Göksu and Küçüksu Promenades.” Middle East Gardens Traditions. Dumbarton Oaks, December 1, 2014. https://www.doaks.org/resources/middle-east-garden-traditions/catalogue/C98. Archived at: https://perma.cc/5UDZ-R9BM.