Gardens and Parks in Turkey

On the European bank of the Bosphorus north of the centre, Emirgan was a private estate before the city took it over, and three nineteenth century pavilions survive in it as cafes: the Yellow, the Pink and the White. It is best known for the tulip festival each April, when the slopes are planted in blocks of colour. Tulips went to the Netherlands from Ottoman Istanbul, not the other way round. The ground is steep between the lower gate and the pavilions.

Yildiz Park climbs the hill between Besiktas and Ortakoy and was the private grounds of Yildiz Palace before it opened to the public. Two pavilions stand inside it, the Malta and the Cadir, both now cafes with the Bosphorus below them. It is wooded and shaded, which is worth a great deal in August. The climb from the Besiktas gate is hard work, so enter from the Yildiz side at the top if you would rather walk down than up.

At Bahcekoy on the European side, next to the Belgrad Forest, this is a research collection run by a forestry faculty rather than a city park. Thousands of tree and shrub species are laid out by region of origin, with ponds and a long loop road through them, and no playgrounds or attractions. It gives the best autumn colour anywhere near Istanbul. Reckon on an hour from the centre, and it is much easier to reach by car.

The unlikely part is the site: land left over inside a motorway interchange on the Asian side, once a spread of traffic islands, now a serious botanical garden run by a foundation. The collection concentrates on Turkish flora and holds endemic species for conservation, with the beds grouped by habitat rather than by looks. Weekday mornings are quiet. Pedestrian access is through an underpass rather than across the traffic.

Gulhane was the outer garden of Topkapi Palace, walled off from the palace itself and opened to the public in 1912. Old plane trees, a slope running down towards the Golden Horn, and a rose terrace along the upper wall. Because it sits inside Sultanahmet it works best as the break in the middle of a museum day rather than as a destination of its own. The Istanbul Archaeology Museums are at the top gate, a minute away.

Two separate falls carry the one name. The upper falls, around 10 kilometres northeast of the centre, drop into a gorge with a path that runs behind the water curtain, and the park around them is planted and shaded. The lower falls go over the cliff straight into the sea at Lara, and are best seen from a boat or from the clifftop above. Flow changes with the season and with upstream water use, so late summer can look thin.

A glasshouse kept warm and humid, planted with tropical species and with butterflies flying free through it on a walk-through route among their host plants. There is a room where cocoons are kept so you can watch one open, and tanks of other insects alongside. It is built for families and takes about an hour. Konya sits on a dry high plateau and the climate inside this building is nothing like the one outside it.

Built as a sister city project with Kyoto and laid out to Japanese convention: a pond with koi, arched bridges, stone lanterns, clipped pines and a tea house. It is small, and it is designed to be walked slowly, which makes it unusual among Turkish city parks, most of which are built to absorb crowds. Spring blossom and late autumn are the two times of year it looks the way it was meant to look, and both are worth timing for.

Terraced down the slopes above the city, with the Black Sea in view from the upper paths and the planting arranged in beds along the way. Trabzon gets a great deal of rain, so the green here is denser than anything in inland Turkey. It is a municipal park rather than a research collection, with walking loops and cafes rather than labelled collections. Pair it with Boztepe, the standard viewpoint over the city, which is close by.

A long clifftop park along the eastern edge of Kaleici, the old town, with the Gulf of Antalya on one side and the Beydaglari mountains across the water. The Hidirlik Tower stands at its seaward corner, a Roman era structure whose original purpose is still argued over. Old trees, benches set along the cliff edge, and the best sunset within walking distance of the centre. Ten minutes on foot from the old harbour.

Laid out in 1936 on ground cleared by the 1922 fire, which makes it a deliberate piece of republican city building rather than an inherited garden. It hosts the Izmir International Fair each September, and for the rest of the year it is an ordinary big city park with an artificial lake, an amphitheatre and long avenues of trees. It is walkable from Alsancak or from Basmane station, and it is the green space Izmir actually uses.