Prior to World War I (1914-18) the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire had for centuries controlled most of the Middle East and (for varying amounts of time) North Africa and Southeast Europe. Following the war the Empire was partitioned by the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres and after a period of turmoil and warfare the Republic of Türkiye (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti in Turkish) was established in 1923. The country was historically called Turkey but in 2022 the Turkish government informed the United Nations that it prefers the official spelling Türkiye to be used in English. The Directory uses the spelling Türkiye in its descriptions but retains Turkish as the adjective form and preserves the more familiar spelling Turkey on the index page. Most of Turkey (97%) occupies the broad peninsula of Anatolia (Asia Minor) between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea; the remaining 3% is the region of East Thrace at the southeastern corner of Europe. Between Anatolia and Thrace is the small Sea of Marmara (Marmara Denizi) connected to the Black Sea by the Bosporus (İstanbul Boğazı) and to the Aegean Sea by the Dardanelles (Çanakkale Boğazı) These narrow passages form a famous international waterway, lit by several historic lighthouses, connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Türkiye is divided into 81 provinces (iller). This page describes the lighthouses of the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, and the Bosporus. Lights of the European side of the straits are on the European Türkiye page. Since the 1920s the Turkish language has been written in a Latin script; a distinctive feature of the alphabet is that the dotted (İ and i) and dotless (I and ı) forms of the letter I are different letters. The Turkish phrase for a lighthouse is fener (plural fenerler) or deniz feneri ("sea lantern"). Ada or adası is an island, yarımada is a peninsula, kaya is a rock or reef, burnu is a cape, burun ("nose") is a headland, körfez is a gulf, koy is a bay or inlet, boğazı is a strait, nehir is a river, and liman is a harbor. Lighthouses in Türkiye are operated by the Directorate General of Coastal Safety (Kıyı Emniyeti Genel Müdürlüğü, KEGM). ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights Admiralty numbers are from volume N of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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Dardanelles Asiatic Side Lighthouses
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Sea of Marmara Asiatic Side Lighthouses
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Eastern İstanbul Province (İstanbul City and Bosporus Asiatic Side) Lighthouses
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Kandilli Burnu Light, İstanbul photo copyright Capt. Peter Mosselberger; used by permission |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Northern Anatolia | South: Western Türkiye | West: European Türkiye
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted April 16, 2007. Checked and revised June 23, 2023. Lighthouses: 36. Site copyright 2023 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.