November 2025

What (and where) is Ortaköy? Ortaköy is a neighborhood in the Beşiktaş district, on the European side of Istanbul, right on the Bosphorus. At its heart is Ortaköy Mosque, officially called Büyük Mecidiye Camii, built in the mid-1800s under Sultan Abdülmecid I. It’s small compared to the big imperial mosques, but insanely photogenic: white stone, Neo-Baroque details, huge windows and […]