Üsküdar
Üsküdar () is a large and densely populated district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered to the north by Beykoz, to the east by Ümraniye, to the southeast by Ataşehir and to the south by Kadıköy ...
district on the Asian shore of the
Bosphorus
The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...
strait in
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, between the neighborhoods of
Beylerbeyi
Beylerbeyi is a neighborhood in the Üsküdar municipality of Istanbul, Turkey. It is located on the Asian shore of the Bosporus, to the north of the Bosphorus Bridge. It is bordered on the northeast by the neighborhood of Çengelköy, on the ea ...
and Kuleli. It is mainly a residential district. Many mansions were built there in the Ottoman period.
From the 6th century, the port of Çengelköy was called ''Sophianai'' because of the palace
Justin II
Justin II ( la, Iustinus; grc-gre, Ἰουστῖνος, Ioustînos; died 5 October 578) or Justin the Younger ( la, Iustinus minor) was Eastern Roman Emperor from 565 until 578. He was the nephew of Justinian I and the husband of Sophia, the ...
built nearby for his consort Sophia.
The name ''Çengelköy'' means "hook village" and indeed the village is nestled around a sharp turn of the Bosphorus shoreline, but the origin of the name is uncertain. One story put forward is that the village is named after the 19th-century Ottoman admiral Çengeloğlu Tahir Pasha, who had a waterside mansion built there (and there is a Çengeloğlu Street in Çengelköy). Another story derives the name from the Persian word ''çenkar'', " crab," because of the abundance of
seafood
Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus a ...
in the Bosphorus there. A 16th-century Ottoman document apparently refers to the place as "Çenger köyü."
Çengelköy is world-famous for the small
cucumber
Cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the Cucurbitaceae family that bears usually cylindrical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.Kandıra).
Opened in 2015, the Mehmet Çakır Cultural and Sports Center, consisting of six indoor swimming pools, is the biggest sports complex on the
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The r ...
n part of Istanbul.
The Vahdettin Pavilion, also known as the Çengelköy Pavilion, an official residence of the
Presidency
A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by ...
and a state guest house, is situated on a hill in Çengelköy.