Note 4 — A MONTH AT CONSTANTINOPLE.[3]

The names of the various districts of Constantinople, sometimes rather indiscriminately used in travellers' narratives, are apt to puzzle those readers unfamiliar with the divisions of the city. The following note puts its distribution clearly before them:—"Stamboul may be termed Constantinople proper, inhabited by the Turks, and containing the Seraglio, chief mosques, great public offices, bazaars, and places of Government and general business. It is the most ancient and most important part, par excellence. Galata is the Wapping of the city: here we find dirty shops for ships' stores; merchants' counting-houses, and tipsy sailors. Tophanné is so called from the large gun-factory close at hand. Both these suburbs are situated at the base of a very steep hill; the upper part of which is Pera, the district allotted to the Franks, or foreigners, and containing the palaces of the ambassadors, the hotels, the European shops, and the most motley population under the sun. Scutari is to Stamboul as Birkenhead to Liverpool, and is in Asia. It is important in its way, as being the starting-place of all the caravans going inland. There are some other districts of less interest to the average tourist."—A Month at Constantinople, p. 46.