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Istanbul's Ferries, a Beloved Link Between Two Continents

The ferries remain popular despite the increasingly congested waters. © Ozan Kose, AFP
The ferries remain popular despite the increasingly congested waters. © Ozan Kose, AFP
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Istanbul's Ferries, a Beloved Link Between Two Continents

The ferries remain popular despite the increasingly congested waters. © Ozan Kose, AFP
The ferries remain popular despite the increasingly congested waters. © Ozan Kose, AFP

For nearly two centuries, the white ferries gliding over the Bosphorus Strait have provided an iconic link for countless passengers travelling between Istanbul's European shores and its Asian side.

Despite the increasingly congested waters and competition from the Turkish megacity's bridges and undersea metro line, the ferries remain very popular.

The main operator Sehir Hatlari carries at least 40 million passengers a year.

"Any view of Istanbul must include Maiden's Tower, a ferry and a seagull," smiled Adil Bali, a specialist on the history of Istanbul's ferries, referring to a tiny rocky outcrop at the southern entrance to the Bosphorus.

"It is one of the few cities in the world that can be crossed by sea, so the ferries are indispensable here."

Their arrival in 1843 transformed the simple fishing villages lining the shores of the Bosphorus into popular holiday destinations where wooden palaces were later built overlooking the water, boosting trade.

Until the first Bosphorus bridge was opened in 1973, the only way to cross between Istanbul's Asian and European sides was by boat -- and today, the experience remains an essential part of the city's charm.

At the helm of the Pasabahce, the flagship of Sehir Hatlari's 30 vessels, Captain Ekrem Ozcelik said the waters had become increasingly crowded.

"There's a lot more traffic on the water," he said of the tankers, containers and cargo ships that pass through the strait linking the Black Sea to the Aegean via the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles.

There are also cruise ships and private yachts navigating what is one of the world's busiest waterways, where 41,300 vessels passed in 2024, official figures show -- an average of 113 per day.

"Navigating the waters of Istanbul requires a certain amount of experience," Ozcelik said of the strait's powerful currents, whose waters can get particularly tricky when strong southwesterly winds can whip up three-meter (10-foot) high waves.

Born into a family of sailors and fishermen, Ozcelik said his boyhood dream was to one day don the white cap and uniform of a captain.

Now 52, he enjoys the freedom of sailing and the kudos of his profession.

"Being a captain in the heart of Istanbul is a source of great pride."

And even more so on the Pasabahce, which recently escaped being decommissioned and instead underwent a two-year restoration, returning to the Bosphorus in 2022 on its 70th birthday.

"It's harder to maneuver than the others. It's heavier and turning corners is complicated," admitted first officer Semih Aksoy, 36.

But he added he wouldn't change the iconic ferry for the world, with its trademark wooden tables and old-world air of faded luxury.

"This ship has a unique beauty, a special feel to it."

With its nine-man crew, the Pasabahce mainly sails the 20-minute route between the Asian district of Kadikoy and Besiktas on the European side.

But even that relatively short trip can be tricky, said Burak Temiz, a 24-year-old sailor.

"This summer, people were jumping into the water from Maiden's Tower for hours.

"And then there are the fishing nets," he told AFP, adding that the ferry's bows had even been grazed by jet skis in the crowded waters.

All the other ferries have a six-man crew, and dozens more staff work at the city's 53 ports, many of whom are known by regulars.

Ibrahim Bayus, a 62-year-old engineer born on Buyukada, the largest of the nearby Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, recalls the familiarity of the ferries.

"As a boy, I often forgot to bring money but the captain knew me," he smiled.

With the service only suspended for snow, fog or a violent storm, Captain Ozcelik recalls when three students on Buyukada came to beg for his help.

"Traffic had been suspended but they told me if they couldn't take their exams, they would fail the entire year. So I took them to Kadikoy. And they all passed," he smiled.

And they still come to visit him.

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Varieties

Dinosaur Fossils in Brazil Reveal New Giant Species

An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
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Dinosaur Fossils in Brazil Reveal New Giant Species

An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS

Brazilian scientists have identified a new species of giant dinosaur with ties to a similar animal found in Spain, reinforcing knowledge that land routes once connected parts of South America, Africa and Europe about 120 million years ago.

Named Dasosaurus tocantinensis, the species is one of the biggest found in the South American country and was described this month in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Reuters reported.

The fossils were uncovered in 2021 at a site hosting infrastructure works near Davinopolis, in Brazil's northeastern state of Maranhao, and the research was led by Elver Mayer of the Federal University of the Sao Francisco Valley.

The remains include a femur measuring about 1.5 meters (59 inches), which helped researchers estimate the animal stretched roughly 20 meters long.

"As the excavation progressed over the days, we began to see the evidence of that huge bone, which is the femur," said Leonardo Kerber, a paleontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) who contributed to the research.

"This indicates it was a very large dinosaur. Today we know Dasosaurus is among the biggest dinosaurs ever found in Brazil," he noted.

According to UFSM, analysis indicated the species is the closest known relative of Garumbatitan morellensis, a dinosaur described in Spain.

Their lineage was European and may have dispersed into what is now South America roughly 130 million years ago, likely via northern Africa, before the Atlantic fully opened, the university said.

Dasosaurus tocantinensis's name combines references to the region where the dinosaur was found, including the Tocantins River, a major waterway whose eastern margins lie near the fossil site.

Varieties

German Philosopher Jurgen Habermas Dies Age 96

German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
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German Philosopher Jurgen Habermas Dies Age 96

German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo

The German philosopher Jurgen Habermas has died, a spokesperson for his publishing house, Suhrkamp Verlag, told AFP on Saturday.

He died at the age of 96 in Starnberg, in southern Germany, she said, citing information from the family of the politically engaged theorist.

Habermas was considered the most influential German philosopher of his generation, involved in all the major postwar debates and seeing a united Europe, in his view, as the only remedy for the rise of nationalism, AFP reported.

In his later years, he devoted himself to promoting a federal European project and prevent the continent from falling, as it did in the 20th century, into nationalist rivalries.

Throughout his life, Habermas linked philosophy and politics, thought and action.

After serving as the voice of German student protest in the 1960s, he became its target thirty years later while warning of the risks of "left-wing fascism".

In 1989, he criticised the terms of German reunification, guided essentially by the demands of the market, and which made "the Deutsche mark its standard."

Born on June 18, 1929 in Duesseldorf, Habermas had been enrolled in the Hitler Youth, but he was too young to have taken an active part in the war. As a teenager, he was deeply marked by the collapse of Nazism.

Varieties

Research Reveals Decades-Long Silverpit Crater Triggered by Tsunami 40 Million Years Ago

A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
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Research Reveals Decades-Long Silverpit Crater Triggered by Tsunami 40 Million Years Ago

A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)

A long-running dispute about the origin of a North Sea crater has finally been settled, as new research finds a massive asteroid hit the water and triggered a towering tsunami millions of years ago.

Scientists have found that the Silverpit Crater – which lies around 700 meters beneath the southern North Sea seabed, roughly 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire – was formed when an asteroid or comet struck the region roughly 43 to 46 million years ago, sparking a 330 feet tsunami.

Since geologists first identified the formation in 2002, the 3km-wide crater and its surrounding ring of circular faults spanning about 20 km have sparked intense debate, according to The Independent.

But researchers say their new study marks the clearest evidence yet that the structure is one of Earth’s rare impact craters.

This confirmation places it in the same category as well-known structures such as the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico, which is linked to the dinosaur mass extinction.

The team used computer modelling and analyzed newly available seismic imaging and microscopic geological samples taken from beneath the seabed.

Dr. Uisdean Nicholson, a sedimentologist in Heriot-Watt University’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, who led the investigation, said: “New seismic imaging has given us an unprecedented look at the crater.”

He said samples from an oil well in the area also revealed rare ‘shocked’ quartz and feldspar crystals at the same depth as the crater floor.

“We were exceptionally lucky to find these – a real ‘needle-in-a-haystack’ effort. These prove the impact crater hypothesis beyond doubt, because they have a fabric that can only be created by extreme shock pressures,” said Nicholson.

The scientists say these microscopic minerals form only under the extreme pressures generated during asteroid impacts, providing strong confirmation of the event.

Early research proposed that the feature was created by a high-speed asteroid impact. Supporters of that idea pointed to its round shape, central peak, and surrounding concentric faults, which are often seen in known impact craters.

But other scientists suggested different explanations. Some proposed that underground salt movement distorted the rock layers and created the structure.

Others argued that volcanic activity may have caused the seabed to collapse.

In 2009, geologists even voted on the issue. According to a report in the December 2009 issue of Geoscientist magazine, most participants rejected the asteroid impact explanation at the time.

The latest findings, published in the journal Nature Communications and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), now appear to overturn that conclusion.

Dr. Nicholson said: “Our evidence shows that a 160-meter-wide asteroid hit the seabed at a low angle from the west.”

“Within minutes, it created a 1.5 km high curtain of rock and water that then collapsed into the sea, creating a tsunami over 100 meters high.”

The impact would have produced a violent explosion at the seafloor and sent enormous waves spreading across the region.

Professor Gareth Collins, of Imperial College London, who attended the 2009 debate about the crater’s origin and contributed to the new research, said the researchers have “finally found the silver bullet” to end the debate.

He said: “I always thought that the impact hypothesis was the simplest explanation and most consistent with the observations.”

“It is very rewarding to have finally found the silver bullet. We can now get on with the exciting job of using the amazing new data to learn more about how impacts shape planets below the surface, which is really hard to do on other planets,” Collins added.

Dr. Nicholson also expressed his excitement about using the new findings for further research into asteroids.

“Silverpit is a rare and exceptionally preserved hypervelocity impact crater,” he said.

“These are rare because the Earth is such a dynamic planet – plate tectonics and erosion destroy almost all traces of most of these events.”