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 Türkiye (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 subdivided into 81 provinces (il or vilayet) for administrative purposes. Each province is divided into districts (ilçe). This page describes the lighthouses of East Thrace, including its Black Sea coast and the European side of the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles, as well as the island of Gökçeada (Imbros) in the northeastern corner of the Aegean Sea adjacent to the Dardanelles. Lights of the Asiatic side of the Straits are on the Northwestern Anatolia 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, boğaz 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). 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. The official Turkish light list, Fenerler ve sis Isaretleri (Lights and Fog Signals), is not available online.
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Western Black Sea Lighthouses
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İstanbul Province: Bosporus West Side Lighthouses
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![]() Büyükdere Light, Büyükdere, May 2021 Google Maps street view |
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Sea of Marmara North and West Coast Lighthouses
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Western Çanakkale Province Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Bulgaria | East: Northwestern Anatolia | West: Northern Greece
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Created April 16, 2007. Checked and revised October 18, 2024. Lighthouses: 38. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.