Beyazıt Tower - Istanbul's Tower

Beyazıt Tower

“Beyazıt Tower” was a fire tower named as “Tetratsiyon” during the Byzantine Period. Due to the great damage throughout the history, architect Krikor Baylan built the tower again in 1749 during the Ottoman period by a full timber. Beyazıt Tower is the first building used for monitoring fire throughout the ancient times.

How Many Digits are found in Beyazıt Tower?

The length of Beyazıt Tower is eighty- five meters and there are two hundred and fifty- six digits to reach the summit of the tower, but to reach its observation floor there are one hundred eighty- six digits. It is known that the tower was built with the initiative of Hussein Aga and the name of “harik” which means of fire in Ottoman was given to the tower so in this time the tower was known as “Harik Tower”. The personnel working in the tower began to be known as “köşklü”, “köşlü” and “debedan”.

“Beyazıt Tower” basically consists of three parts; these parts were called as “Sanchez Solid”, Signal Solid” and “Seizure Solid”. At nights, a fire alarm was given with lanterns while in mornings, it was given with baskets.

Colors of Beyazıt Towers

Beyazıt Tower was lit up with different colors at nights from Ottoman period to 1995. This method was used for giving information about the prediction of weather to the people of Istanbul during this time. For example, if blue lights were on, the weather would be good next day; if green lights were on, the weather would be rainy; if red lights were on, the weather would be snowy; if yellow lights were on, the weather would be foggy. The nostalgic and important application was stopped in 1995, but in 2010 this application was re-launched by the local government.

Where is the Beyazıt Tower?

Beyazıt Tower, renovated between 1997 and 1999, is located in today’s Beyazıt Campus of Istanbul University. When you enter the campus with a special permission, you can have a chance to see Beyazıt Tower.

Don’t worry if you can’t see the Beyazıt Tower, because there are a lot of places to visit such as museums, mosques and baths. Beyazıt is a rich place for history.