Yoros Castle

Yoros sits on a headland at the northern end of the Bosphorus, where the strait finally widens into the Black Sea, and the position explains everything about it - whoever held this hill watched every ship entering or leaving. The surviving walls and the pair of great towers flanking the main gate are Byzantine, built over earlier fortifications on a site used since antiquity, and the Genoese and then the Ottomans held it in turn. What remains is a genuine ruin: broken curtain walls, the gate towers with carved fragments still set in them, grass and scrub, and an enormous view north over the open sea and south back down the strait. Getting there is half the appeal, since the standard route is the long public ferry up the Bosphorus to Anadolu Kavağı, a fishing village with a row of fish restaurants along the quay, and then the walk up through the village to the ridge.

The main sights

• The gate towers - the twin Byzantine towers at the entrance.
• The broken walls - curtain and foundations across the headland.
• The Black Sea view - the strait opening into open water.
• Anadolu Kavağı - the fishing village and its quay below.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Take an early ferry - the return boats are few, and missing the last one means a long road journey back.

What to expect

The walk up from the village is steep and takes twenty to thirty minutes. It is an unrestored ruin with fenced sections and uneven ground. Ferry timetables are sparse; check the return before you climb.

Nearby

Anadolu Kavağı's fish restaurants are at the foot of the hill; the Bosphorus villages line the route back south.

Key facts