Photos

"Dalyan" in Turkish is a fish trap which has been in use for hundreds of years. It is probably the oldest technique to catch fish. The island seen behind the dalyan is called "Yassı Ada" where there is prison and nobody is allowed to get near it. All the political and most dangereous criminals are kept there. Pretty much like Alcatraz in San Fransisco in USA.

The Princes' Islands are a chain of nine islands off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, in the Sea of Marmara. The largest island is Büyükada among the four other sizable islands being Burgazada, Heybeliada, Kınalıada and Sedef Adası.

The pine – forested Princes’ Islands provide a welcome break from the bustle of the city and are just a short ferry ride southeast from Istanbul. In 2003, a large portion of the pine forests on Burgazada burnt down. Most ferries call in turn at the four largest of the nine islands: Kınalıada, Burgazada, Heybeliada and finally Büyükada.

During the Byzantine period, princes and other royalty were exiled on the islands, and later members of the Ottoman sultans family were exiled there too, lending the islands their present name. During the 19th century the islands became a popular resort for Istanbul's wealthy, and Victorian era cottages and houses are still preserved on the largest of the Princes' islands.

The Princes' Islands have become more and more ethnically Turkish in character due to the influx of wealthy Turkish jetsetters, a process which began in the first days of the Turkish Republic when the British Yacht Club on Büyükada was appropriated as Anadolu Kulübü, for Turkish parliamentarians to enjoy Istanbul in the summer. However, the Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities still constitute a small part of the islands' population. The islands are an interesting anomaly because they allow us to have a rare and incomplete insight into a multicultural society in modern Turkey, possibly alike to the multicultural society that once existed during the Ottoman Empire in places such as nearby Istanbul.