Fatih is a district in İstanbul that encompasses most of the peninsula coinciding with historic Constantinople. In 2009, the district of Eminönü, formerly a separate municipality located at the tip of the peninsula, was merged into Fatih. Fatih borders the Golden Horn to the north and the Sea of Marmara to the south.
The name "Fatih" comes from the Ottoman emperor Fatih Sultan Mehmed (Mehmed the Conqueror), and means "Conqueror" in Turkish. The Fatih Mosque built by Mehmed II is in this district, while his resting place is next to the mosque and is much visited. It was one of the largest examples of Turkish-Islamic architecture in Istanbul and represented an important stage in the development of classic Turkish architecture.
This area, which has harbored many civilizations throughout its thousands of years of history, is currently the most significant historical, touristic and commercial center of İstanbul.
A number of Istanbul's longest-established hospitals are in Fatih, including the Istanbul University teaching hospitals of Çapa and Cerrahpaşa, the Haseki Public Hospital, the Samatya Public Hospital, and the Vakıf Gureba Public Hospital. A tramway runs from the docks at Sirkeci, through Sultanahmet, to the other parts of Fatih.
Fener is a neighborhood midway up the Golden Horn within the district of Fatih in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). The streets in the area are full of historic wooden mansions, churches, and synagogues dating from the Byzantine and Ottoman eras. It was so called for a column topped with a lantern which stood there in the Byzantine period - used as a public light or marine and/or other purpose locator/beacon.
Zeyrek is one of the most significant neighborhoods to maintain the Ottoman urban structure today and named by UNESCO a “Global Cultural Inheritance” due to the precious memories of all mankind it bears, Zeyrek is known for its wooden windows all built with exedras and jambs.
Yenikapı is a port and a neighborhood in the metropolitan district of Fatih on the side of the Bosphorus and along the southern shore of the city's historically central peninsula.
Yenikapı is notable for the ongoing excavations on its Byzantine port discovered in 2004. This has become one of the largest investigations in Europe, because of the size and the number of the shipwrecks found since the initial discovery, and the large number of associated artefacts.
The Column of Marcian (Kıztaşı) is a Roman honorific column erected in Constantinople by the praefectus urbi Tatianus (450-c.452) and dedicated to the Emperor Marcian (450-57). It is located in the present-day Fatih district of Istanbul. The column is not documented in any late Roman or Byzantine source and its history has to be inferred from its location and inscription.
The Süleymaniye Mosque is an Ottoman imperial mosque located on the Third Hill of Istanbul. It is the second largest mosque in the city, and one of the best-known sights of Istanbul. The Süleymaniye Mosque was built on the order of Sultan Süleyman (Süleyman the Magnificent) "was fortunate to be able to draw on the talents of the architectural genius of Mimar Sinan" (481 Traditions and Encounters: Brief Global History). The construction work began in 1550 and the mosque was finished in 1558.
