d. Scutari.
Steam Ferry Boats from the New Bridge (see p. [538]) and Beshiktash to Scutari. Those from the New Bridge to the minor stations Salajak, near the Leander tower, and Harem-Iskelesí, below the Selimieh Barracks (p. [536]), are less frequent and are seldom used by strangers.—Carriages have the same tariff as in the city (p. [538]). Drive from the pier to the Chamlija Spring and back viâ the Great Cemetery (about 2½ hrs.) 1½ mejidiehs (30 pias.).—Horse to the Bulgurlu about 1 mej.
The steamer leaves the Seraglio Point on the right and steers to the E. to (¼ hr.) the chief landing-place at Scutari, which lies on the Asiatic shore, in a bay to the N. of the promontory. To the right, off the end of the promontory, is a flat islet on which rises the so-called Leander’s Tower (by the Turks named Kiz Kulesí, i.e. maiden’s tower, from the legend that a sultan’s daughter was once kept here), with a signalling station and lights.
Scutari (no European inns), Turk. Üsküdar, the ancient Chrysopolis, the harbour of Chalcedon (p. [536]), now a large suburb of Constantinople, contains 90,000 inhab., comparatively few of whom are Armenians and Greeks. Its fine old mosques, its crooked streets, and its small timber houses give it a more Oriental character than Stambul. Until a century ago Scutari was the terminus of the caravan-routes from Asia Minor, by which the treasures of the East were brought to Constantinople. It is still the starting-point of the sacred annual Mecca caravan.
From the pier we follow the broad main street past the Büyük Jami (‘Great Mosque’; 1547), on the left, and the Yeni Valideh Jami (1707–10), on the right, beyond which a road to the right diverges to the Dervishes’ Monastery and the Great Cemetery.
The street, inclining to the left, next leads to the quarters of Yeni Mahalleh, with an Armenian cemetery, and Baglar Bashi; then, past villas, to the village of Bulgurlukiöi. Before the village is reached a road to the left leads to (2 M. from the pier) the Chamlija Spring, shaded by great plane-trees, a favourite Friday and Sunday resort like the Sweet Waters (p. [556]).
We may thence ascend (to the N., ¼ hr.) the Great Bulgurlu or Büyük Chamlija (879 ft.; small café, bargaining necessary), which, in the forenoon especially, affords a superb *View of Constantinople, the Bosporus, and the Sea of Marmora.
On the way back we turn to the left, skirting the Armenian cemetery, to visit the *Great Cemetery (Büyük Mezaristán), the largest Moslem burial-ground in the East. The lower road through it leads to the N. to the Monastery of the Howling Dervishes (Rufaï Tekkeh; no admittance).
To the S. of the Great Cemetery lies Haidar Pasha (p. [536]), with a large Military Hospital, where Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) first devoted herself to her philanthropic work. Adjoining the Hospital is the British Cemetery, containing a tall granite Obelisk in memory of the British who fell in the Crimean war.