Custodian: University of Glasgow Library Special Collections

Reference: Dougan Add. 13, item 23

The photograph shows the view along the north shore of the Bosphorus in Istanbul looking north-eastward.

The large building in the centre of the image is the Dolmabahçe Palace commissioned by the 31st Sultan, Abdülmecid I, and designed and built by the Balyan family of court architects between 1843 and 1856. It served periodically in the late 19th and early 20th century as the administrative hub of the Ottoman Empire. The Palace is now a museum.

Beyond, on the right of the image, is the Çirağan Palace. It was commissioned as a residence by Sultan Abdülaziz, brother of Abdülmecid I, and designed and built by the Balyan family during the 1860s. It is now a five-star hotel.

The mosques visible in the photograph are, in the foreground, Molla Çelebi, and on the left Dolmabahçe Mosque, part of the palace complex.

The photograph is signed bottom right by Istanbul photographers Sébah & Joaillier; its print number and original title are given bottom left: 339, Palais du Sultan au Bosphore.

Dougan Add. 13 comprises a large album containing 219 souvenir photographs, prints and papers of cruises on S. S. Cuzco in 1904 and S. Y. Argonaut in 1906. The majority of the photographs show locations in Turkey, Greece and Sicily; there are also several photographs of European princesses. The photographs date from between 1889 and 1906.