Caravanserai in Karaköy

Analogue colour film

(Main page)

Itinerary

Starting at the foot of the Galata Bridge towards the Perşembe Pazarı (Thursday Market) – a historic commercial district known for its concentration of hardware, tool, plumbing, and industrial spare parts shops.

Towards Tersane Cd. and into the ancient Rüstem Paşa Han – a former resting place for caravans (caravanserai) for traveling merchants and their goods.

Colour analogue film
Captured with Yashica Electro 35 gl
April 2026

About

Although heavily populated by tourists, Karaköy remains alive. Historically a centre of trade providing shipbuilding materials for the Ottoman navy (the name of the main street, Tersane, comes from "shipyard/arsenal" in Ottoman Turkish) it now provides in abundance all sorts of hardware, pipes, wires and spare parts, tools and parts for plumbing and construction.

The spirit of the Silk Road is flowing through the backstreets of Tersane Cd, merchants and buyers negotiating in the old fashion – a leisurely conversation about nothing in particular before the essence of the business is unraveled in its finest details and nuances. Instead of the fine jewellery, lamps and the shimmering of lokum of the old bazaars, the counters here hold nuts, nails, screwdrivers, screws, washers, wire, gaskets, tape measures, drill bits and other treasures.

In the backstreets behind Tersane Cd — the ancient Rüstem Paşa Han. A building by Mimar Sinan, from the 1500s. A double-tier arcaded courtyard, columned archways over two levels. Once a resting place for caravans, now it shelters workshops, art galleries, ateliers, a motorcycle repair shop.