Belgrad Forest

Belgrad Ormanı covers several thousand hectares of oak, beech and hornbeam north of the city, and it exists in its protected form because of water: from the sixteenth century the Ottomans dammed its streams and piped the supply into Istanbul, so the woodland was guarded as a watershed rather than cleared. Seven historic bends - dams - survive, along with aqueducts including the great Uzunkemer and the Maglova, the latter a Sinan work of the 1560s spanning a valley in two tiers of arches. For most visitors the forest means the trails: a well-used running loop of about six and a half kilometres around the Neşet Suyu area, walking paths, mountain-bike routes, and picnic grounds that fill on Sundays. Birdlife is good and the autumn colour is the best near the city. The name comes from a community resettled here from Belgrade in the sixteenth century, whose village stood in the forest until the nineteenth.

What you actually see

• The running loop - the main circuit through the woods.
• The Ottoman dams - the surviving bends across the streams.
• The aqueducts - Uzunkemer and Sinan's Maglova.
• The autumn colour - beech and oak turning in October.

When to go

April to June for green and birdsong, and October to November for colour. Avoid Sundays if you want quiet - the picnic areas fill completely.

Honest expectations

It is a large forest with limited signage; download a map or stick to the marked loop. Public transport reaches the edge, not the trails. Picnic areas charge and get very busy at weekends.

Nearby

Sarıyer and the upper Bosphorus villages are east; Kilyos on the Black Sea coast is north.