Toklu Dede Mosque

Ayvansaray is a neighborhood in Istanbul, Turkey. It is part of the district of Fatih and part of the walled city. It lies between the southern shore of the Golden Horn, the Blachernae section of the Walls, and the neighborhoods of Balat and Edirnekapı. It corresponds to the old quarter of Blachernae (Vlachérnai in Greek). The name Ayvansaray is from Persian ایوان‌سرای (Iwan + Saray) and means "Veranda Palace". This name hearkens back to the Palace of Alexios I Komnenos (now disappeared), which was part of the complex of Blachernae.Ayvansaray has a number of historic monuments, like the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (Tekfur Palace), the mosque of Atik Mustafa Pasha (originally a medieval Byzantine church), and the Ayazma ("holy spring") enclosed in the small church of St. Mary of Blachernae. It is a picturesque quarter.

Saint Mary of Blachernae (full name in Greek: Θεοτόκος των Βλαχερνών (pr. Theotókos ton Vlachernón); Turkish name: Meryem Ana Kilisesi) is an Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul. The small church building was constructed in 1867 on the site of a fifth century shrine which had the same dedication. The shrine had been one of the most important sanctuaries of the Greek Orthodox Church until its destruction in 1434.

Paulines was a town of ancient Thrace, inhabited during Byzantine times.Its site is located outside the Blachernai walls in European Turkey.

Atik Mustafa Pasha Mosque (Turkish: Atik Mustafa Paşa Camii; also named Hazreti Cabir Camii) is a former Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul, converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. The dedication of the church is obscure. For a long time it has been identified with the church of Saints Peter and Mark, but without any proof. Now it seems more probable that the church is to be identified with Saint Thekla of the Palace of Blachernae (Greek: Άγία Θέκλα τοῦ Παλατίου τῶν Βλαχερνών, Hagia Thekla tou Palatiou tōn Vlakhernōn). The building belongs stylistically to the eleventh-twelfth century.

The Prison of Anemas (Turkish: Anemas Zindanları) is a large Byzantine building attached to the walls of the city of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey). It is traditionally identified with the prisons named after Michael Anemas, a Byzantine general who rose in unsuccessful revolt against Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) and was the first person to be imprisoned there. The prison features prominently in the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, when four Byzantine emperors were imprisoned there.

Haliç Bridge (Turkish: Haliç Köprüsü, "Golden Horn Bridge") is a highway bridge on the Golden Horn (Turkish: Haliç) in Istanbul, Turkey. It connects the neighborhoods of Ayvansaray in the southwest and Halıcıoğlu in the northwest. The bridge carries the O-1 motorway, also known as the Istanbul Inner Beltway. It was constructed between 1971 and 1974, and entered service on 10 September 1974. The engineering firms which undertook the construction works were IHI Corporation of Japan and Julius Berger-Bauboag AG of Germany. The bridge has a length of 995 m (3,264 ft), a width of 32 m (105 ft), and a height of 22 m (72 ft) above sea level.

The Defterdar Mosque, or the Defterdar Mahmut Efendi Mosque (Turkish: Defterdar Camii, Defterdar Mahmut Efendi Camii), is 16th century Ottoman mosque located in Eyüp, Istanbul, Turkey. It was commissioned by Defterdar Nazlı Mahmut Efendi (c. 1500–1546) and built by architect Mimar Sinan in 1542 ("defterdar" was the head of the financial department in Ottoman Empire). Instead of a crescent, this mosque has "ink pot and pen" on top of its dome, representing the profession of the founder of the mosque. (since "defterdar" means chamberlain, literally it means defter:notebook + dar:suffix for "doer"). The original pair was broken by a storm in 1997. Ten years later, on 30 May 2007, a new inkpot and a pen assembled on top of the dome of the mosque.

USS Thornback (SS-418), a Tench-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the thornback, a slender member of the shark family with a long pointed snout and a sharp spine at the end of each dorsal fin, native to northern Atlantic waters ranging from the temperate to the Arctic. Her keel was laid down on 5 April 1944 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 7 July 1944 sponsored by Mrs. Peter K. Fischler, and commissioned on 13 October 1944 with Commander Ernest P. Abrahamson in command.

The Palace of Blachernae (Greek: τὸ ἐν Βλαχέρναις Παλάτιον) was an imperial Byzantine residence in the suburb of Blachernae, located in the northwestern section of Constantinople (today located in the quarter of Ayvansaray in Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey). The area of the palace is now mostly overbuilt, and only literary sources are available as to its description.

Blachernae (Medieval Greek: Βλαχέρναι) was a suburb in the northwestern section of Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire. It is the site of a water source and a number of prominent churches were built there, most notably the great Church of St. Mary of Blachernae (Panagia Blacherniotissa), built by Empress Pulcheria in c. 450, expanded by Emperor Leo I (r. 457–474) and renovated by Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) in the 6th century.

The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (Greek: τὸ Παλάτιον τοῦ Πορφυρογεννήτου), known in Turkish as the Tekfur Sarayı ("Palace of the Sovereign"), is a late 13th-century Byzantine palace in the north-western part of the old city of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey). An annex of the greater palace complex of Blachernae, it is the best preserved of the three Byzantine palaces to survive in the city (together with the ruins of the Boukoleon Palace; and the ruins of the Great Palace of Constantinople with its surviving substructures, retrieved mosaics and standing Magnaura section), and one of the few relatively intact examples of late Byzantine secular architecture in the world.

Hasköy is a district on the northern bank of the Golden Horn in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, Turkey. It includes the neighborhoods of Keçeci Piri, Piri Paşa, and Halıcıoğlu, and parts of Camiikebir and Sütlüce. Hasköy means "imperial village" in Turkish, a reference to the pavilions and gardens belonging to the Ottoman sultan and his court once found here. According to other sources, the name is a corruption of Aya Paraskevi, Αγία Παρασκευή, the local Greek Orthodox church.In the late fifteenth century, Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal took refuge in the Ottoman Empire and many of them settled in Hasköy. In the late sixteenth century, the Jewish community of Eminönü was displaced by the construction of the New Mosque (Yeni Cami) and also moved to Hasköy. The neighborhood also had many Armenian and Greek residents in the past. It was known to Armenian speakers as Khasgiugh (Խասգիւղ), "khas" reflecting the older pronunciation of the Turkish word "has" and "giugh" being the Armenian word for village. Hasköy was a trading area with many dockyards and warehouses. The first Armenian theatre company in Istanbul was founded here in 1858.Local attractions include the Aynalıkavak Palace and the Rahmi M. Koç Museum. At one time there were several active synagogues in Hasköy including the Maalem Synagogue, Hesed Le Avraam Synagogue, the Karaite Synagogue and the former Mayor Synagogue. The Greek Orthodox Church of Aya Paraskevi (Saint Paraskevi) still functions and has been provided by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the local Romanian Orthodox community. The Surp Stepanos (Saint Stephen) Armenian Church was established by Armenian immigrants from Eğin. From 1852 to sometime in the 20th century, the Halıcıoğlu Armenian Protestant Church also offered services; while from 1889 to 1975, there was also a chapel attached to Hasköy's Kalfayan Orphanage, the Surp Asdvadzadzin (Saint Mary) Armenian Church.Local mosques include the Handan Agha Mosque, and Kırmızı Minare Mosque. Local cemeteries include the Hasköy Muslim Cemetery, the Beyoğlu Greek Cemetery, the Beyoğlu Jewish Cemetery, the Turkish Karaite Congregation Cemetery, and the Hasköy Armenian Cemetery. The Jewish Cemetery contains the grave of Abraham Kamondo, a banker to the Ottoman court. On April 26, 2011, the cemetery was desecrated by vandals who smashed several headstones in what appears to have been an act of anti-Semitism.