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| Chapel at the cemetery |
Yesterday, I got the very enjoyable chance, along with about a dozen others, to go on a guided tour of Istanbul's
Feriköy Protestant Cemetery. The speaker was from
ARIT, a group which has significant archives about a lot of international history in Istanbul/Turkey/the Ottoman Empire. Obviously, given its name, this cemetery has a definite religious aspect. Less obviously, it has a distinctly international flavor as nearly 5,000 people have been buried there from all over the world. The cemetery itself is both divided into sections for various nations and administered by the consulates of Western nations.
This peaceful setting would be well worth a visit on a trip to Istanbul as it is very different from other things one might see here. Here is a quiet place where you can see tidbits of history referencing naval and military history, plague disasters and life-long residencies, religious and educational works, and, really, glimpses of the history of this metropolis. The marking stones range from the 1600s all the way to the present.
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| Another shot |
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| Gravestones of Elias Riggs' family; the one on the far left was the first grave in the cemetery |
Ferikoy
