Büyük and Küçük Çamlica

Many a local suggests that visitors trek to the top of Çamlica Hill, the highest point in Istanbul and famed for its sweeping views over the historic peninsula as far as the Princes' Islands and north to the Black Sea. In fact there are two hills, Büyük (big) and Küçük (little) Çamlica, the former swathed in pines and punctuated by restaurants and cafes (because they're run by the municipality, they don't serve alcohol) and the latter mostly residential. During the era of Sultan Murad IV, the pastoral and piney hills served the sultan and his nobles as a royal hunting ground, and a number of palaces (mostly wooden and no longer extant) were constructed here.

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