Istanbul Land Walls

Istanbul Land Walls ‘Kara Surları’ had been lived for centuries, served as Byzantine, Constantinian, Theodosian, and Ottoman city walls for protection, survived against natural disasters, wars, and calamities, witnessed various cultures, and reached at present as a permanent city enclosure. Walls while providing security in history, had been a shelter for different communities and a living memory wall.  ‘Less is more’ is the major principle of the urban protection and design project that has been prepared for such a valuable, powerful stand.

Short, middle, and long-distance pedestrian, bicycle, and public transportation routes (like Mermer Kule – Ayvansaray, Yedikule – Çemberlitaş, Zeytinburnu – Eminönü, Haliç – Marmara) are proposed beginning from Land Walls through inner districts of the Historical Peninsula. Land Walls play the leading act of carrying the Historical Peninsula to future, together with Istanbul Sea Walls. The landscape protection strategy suggested for the Land Walls and its surroundings dwells upon some principal design concepts within an ecological framework of sustainable culture and history tourism, four seasons pastoral texture, balance of nature and the city, and urban agriculture for everyone.