Rumeli Hisari

Rumeli Hisari stands on the European shore of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, built in a single year, 1451 to 1452, on the order of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II as he prepared his eventual siege of Byzantine Constantinople. Mehmed sited the fortress at the strait's narrowest point, barely 660 meters across, specifically to control and, if needed, cut off maritime traffic reaching the besieged Byzantine capital, an intent preserved in the fortress's Turkish nickname Bogazkesen, meaning strait-cutter. Three large towers, each named for the vizier who supervised its construction, anchor the walls: the cylindrical Sarica Pasha Tower to the north at roughly 28 meters, the twelve-sided Halil Pasha Tower at the center reaching about 22 meters, and the cylindrical Zaganos Pasha Tower to the south at around 21 meters, linked by curtain walls studded with thirteen smaller watchtowers across a fortified area of roughly 31,250 square meters. Since 1960 the fortress has operated as a museum, and it now also serves as an open-air venue for concerts, art festivals and other seasonal events along the Bosphorus.