Yedikule

I'm back in the States! I still have more adventures to talk about, though, so there will be a few more posts. This time, I'll be sharing my time at Yedikule. For those of you still in Istanbul, I highly encourage you to visit. It's an old fortress west of the old part of the city, accessible by suburban train. It's very empty and delightfully creepy.

I really didn't know what to expect with this place, since I hadn't read much about it. I was shocked by the fact that I was more or less the only person there, with almost the entire fortress unguarded. You can freely wander the towers and corridors:

The tops of the towers give excellent views:

The areas inside the towers are pretty scary, especially the unlit ones. I was greeted with many stairwells that look like this (note that it is only my flash illuminating this place):

I spent most of my time walking very hesitantly, terrified that someone would jump out at me (or a spider would attack me). This tower is where the dungeons were, though I'm not sure where exactly the prisoners would be:

After touring the towers, I went into another area of the fortress, with this little entrance:

 

I gotta say, this area really gave me the creeps. It was completely cut off from the outside world, and there was a very eerie silence. I wandered for a while through many windowless corridor, and came to this room:

I have no idea what it was, but it made me very uncomfortable and I had to leave very quickly. Perhaps it was the fact that the floor was not entirely solid and I had no idea what was underneath. Regardless, I got out of there pretty quickly, checking out some other creepy rooms on the way:

So that's Yedikule. You should visit and enjoy the creepiness.