From borders to boundaries: Istanbul Land Walls
The city is a whole with its local, cultural, social dynamics, and built environment. From economics to socio-political, and contextual relations, it contains different kinds of topological relations. In time, these relations become hybrid layers
in different ways; and play a decisive role in the change and transformation of the
urban context. Therefore, the ‘palimpsest’ is an important notion that reveals the
causalities and the relations behind the transformation of an urban context; and
a palimpsest urban reading helps us to recognize and understand the dynamic
relations of urban transformation by making an inquiry for the physical and con-
textual values. Through its layers, an urban palimpsest reading makes it possible
to observe these characteristic changes and actors involved in changes.
Extending from The Golden Horn to The Marmara Sea, Istanbul Land Walls
can be regarded as one of the distinct examples of the urban palimpsest. Since
its construction, Istanbul Land Walls have been functioned differently from time
to time; and played a critical role in macro-scale and mezzo-scale changes in the
urban context. Today, besides showing the patterns of previous civilizations, these
buildings also show the traces of a contextual transformation, a transformation
from being borders to becoming boundaries. The study discusses the land walls
and their impact on the hybridization of the urban context through a historic
research, current observation, and photographs in the direction of Topkapı-Yedikule Gates.