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Photographer’s Note

Haydarpaşa Terminal (Turkish: Haydarpaşa Garı) is a terminus main station of the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) in the Haydarpaşa quarter of the Kadıköy district, at the Anatolian part of Istanbul, Turkey. International, domestic and regional trains running to east- and south-bound destinations depart from this major terminal which was built as the terminus of the Istanbul-Konya-Baghdad and Istanbul-Damascus-Medina railways during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

The structure was built on wooden piles hammered into the seabed and is therefore surrounded by water on three sides, a unique feature for a railway station. The Teutonic pseudo-castle railway station was built between 1906 and 1908 by the Anatolia-Baghdad Corporation, and was a gift to Sultan Abdülhamid II from his ally Kaiser Wilhelm II. Its foundation is based on 1100 wooden piles, each 21 meters long, driven into the mushy shore by a steam hammer. German and Italian stone masons crafted the façade embellishments of the terminal. The German engineers and craftsmen who worked at the construction site of the building established a small German neighbourhood in the Yeldeğirmeni quarter of Kadıköy. The station building has a very distinctive style, definitely standing out in Istanbul. Thanks to its location, it has been very well preserved, even restored following the damages caused by a burning tanker ship in 1979. The building is best seen from the sea, by taking a boat that calls just in front of the station to cross the Bosphorus.

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Additional Photos by Erbil Oguz (erbiloguz) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 80 W: 7 N: 53] (865)
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