The greatest of Istanbul's Bosphorus fortresses stands on the European shore at the strait's narrowest point, built in 1452 by Mehmed II in preparation for his conquest of Constantinople. Three large towers and a curtain wall enclose a broad area on the hillside, with superb views across the water to the Asian shore and the older Anadolu Hisari. After the conquest the fortress became a customs post and later a prison for foreign prisoners of war. Now a museum with an open-air theatre inside the walls.
Rumeli Hisari
A story
Sultan Mehmed II built this fortress in four months flat in 1452 — a deliberate statement of intent that left the Byzantines in no doubt about what was coming. Together with Anadolu Hisari directly opposite on the Asian shore, it could close the Bosphorus entirely, cutting Constantinople off from Black Sea grain supplies. Its Ottoman name was Boğazkesen: Throat-Cutter.