Beşiktaş

Beşiktaş, residential section of İstanbul, in northwestern Turkey, on the Bosporus. Once the Byzantine village of Diplokionion, it is now a cultural quarter of İstanbul. It is the site of the Dolmabahçe Palace and Museum (1854), the Yıldız Park and Palace (1844), the Çıragan Palace (1874), the Tanzimat and Naval museums, and Sinan Pasha Mosque, as well as a monument to Barbarossa II (Khayr ad-Din), a 16th-century Barbary pirate in the service of the sultan. A ferry crosses the Bosporus between Beşiktaş, in European Turkey, and Üsküdar, in Asian Turkey. Population (1990) 192,210.