Among the myriad delights of Istanbul are the iskele piers serving vapur ferries. The smaller iskeles along the Bosphorus are especially charming, like Beylerbeyi:

 

Most vapur have cafés on board, but some iskeles also have cafés and even libraries—like those at Karaköy and Beşiktaş, a welcome refuge from the surrounding bustle:

 

The Kadikoy iskele is charming, but most picturesque is at Moda:

 

Even the Kuzguncuk iskele (from where the Greek bishop throws a cross into the Bosphorus to be retrieved at Epiphany!), despite its sparse ferry schedule, has a popular cafe and library:

 

Here’s the Paşabahçe iskele in 1910:

 

Many of these piers date back to the mid-19th century, and have been regularly modified, but the addition of cafés and libraries is part of recent initiatives—the Moda iskele, for instance, had so few passengers that it was closed from 1986, reopening in 2001 and revamped since 2022.

Ara Güler’s classic photos of the vapur and life on the Bosphorus are evocative, like this image from 1956:

 

For more on Istanbul (including Kuzguncuk), see under West/Central Asia.