Kandilli Observatory, or more formally Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI, tr, Kandilli Rasathanesi ve Deprem Araştırma Enstitüsü) is a Turkish observatory, which is also specialized on earthquake research. It is situated in Kandilli neighborhood of Üsküdar district on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, atop a hill overlooking Bosporus.

History

The observatory, named originally "Imperial Observatory" ( ota, رصدخانه‌يي امیره, Rasathâne-i Âmire) as established in 1868 in the

Rumelia Rumelia ( ota, روم ايلى, Rum İli; tr, Rumeli; el, Ρωμυλία), etymologically "Land of the Names of the Greeks#Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι), Romans", at the time meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians and more specifically Christians f ...

n side of Istanbul, was dedicated mainly to weather forecasting and accurate timekeeping. During the

31 March Incident The 31 March Incident ( tr, 31 Mart Vakası, , , or ) was a political crisis within the Ottoman Empire in April 1909, during the Second Constitutional Era. Occurring soon after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, in which the Committee of Union and Pr ...

in 1909, the observatory was destroyed by the rebels. Next year, however, Professor Fatin (later

Fatin Gökmen Fatin Gökmen (6 January 1877 – 1955) was a Turkish astronomer and politician. He was a key figure in facilitating the emergence of the modern astronomical observatory in Turkey. The Imperial Observatory, established in Istanbul in 1867 under ...

) was tasked with the reestablishment of the observatory. He chose the present place as the location in of the observatory. Systematic research works began on July 1, 1911. After several name changes, the name "Kandilli Observatory, Astronomy and Geophysics" came into use in 1940. In 1982, the observatory was annexed to Boğaziçi University. Later, the institution was renamed Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI).KOERİ History page
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Structure of the institution

Kandilli Observatory consists of following departments, laboratories and other facilities situated within its campus: ;Departments: *

Earthquake engineering Earthquake engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that designs and analyzes structures, such as buildings and bridges, with earthquakes in mind. Its overall goal is to make such structures more resistant to earthquakes. An earth ...

Geodesy Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivale ...

* Geophysics ;Laboratories: * Astronomy * Geomagnetism * Meteorology * Optics ;Other facilities: * Earthquake museum * National Earthquake Monitoring Center * Magnetics Monitoring Station * Geodesy and Magnetics Monitoring Station * Disaster Preparedness Education Unit * Sun Tower * Institute for Biomedical engineering * Telecommunication and

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' ''Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which ...

Research Center In addition, following centers are run by the observatory outside the campus: * Belbaşı Nuclear Tests Monitoring Center, formerly Belbaşı Seismic Research Station (Belbaşı, Ankara Province) * İznik Center for Reducing of Earthquake Damages (Iznik Deprem Zararlarinin Azaltilmasi Merkezi) ( Iznik, Bursa Province)

References

{{Authority control Seismological observatories, organisations and projects Boğaziçi University Üsküdar Geophysical observatories Geomagnetism 1868 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Meteorological observatories Astronomical observatories in Turkey Scientific organizations based in Turkey