About Bosphorus Dinner Cruise

The First Scientific Investigations in the Bosphorus

B.C. Late 8th century and BC7. There are records that the Persians, who conquered Byzantium in the 7th century, with Jason and the Argonauts between the beginning of the 19th century, knew about the current in the Bosphorus. In fact, it is claimed that what is meant by the “Acheron River” mentioned in legends and myths is the straits and the undercurrent there.

Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli made the first scientific investigations on the Bosphorus. Marsigli, who stayed in Istanbul for 11 months, is the first scientist to measure the strength of the undercurrent in the Bosphorus. In his experiments with white-painted mushrooms, which he dipped deep with lead-weighted rope in the Bosphorus in 1680, he showed that the mushrooms were drifting north, and also took measurements of water depth and flow velocity. 

Features of the Bosphorus

The Bosphorus is defined as a 29.9 km long, narrow and highly curved waterway that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Marmara, generally extending in the northeast-southwest direction. The width of the strait decreases to 698 meters at the point where they come closest to each other. Its widest point is 3600 meters.

Strait; Late Devonian (355 million years ago) deformed sandstone carved into schist rocks. The sediments in the Bosphorus are not older than 7500 years. This refers to a process that started 7500 years ago.

Bosphorus presents a channel structure which also progresses on the continental shelf of the Black Sea on the sea floor. The curves on the iso-depth map clearly show this. In the Bosphorus; there are many shallows, a ridge, a depression and two thresholds, one at the entrance, from both the Marmara and the Black Sea sides. These thresholds are 50 meters deep and are like a natural dam (barrier) separating the Bosphorus valley from the Marmara and Black Seas. The ridge is 25-30 meters high, then splits into two branches and then disappears completely.

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Since the different water bodies of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea can be located in the same place, at the same time, but at different depths in the Bosphorus, the salinity values ​​are also variable. The salinity of the Black Sea is half that of a normal sea water. For this reason, the salinity in the Bosphorus, where it is usually 17%, increases as you go deeper from the surface and rises up to 35%.

Currents in the Strait

Although the average depth in the Bosphorus is 60 meters, as you go from south to north, the depth increases and reaches 110 meters. There are a total of 12 sharp folds in the strait, whose angles can sometimes reach 45-800 degrees. There seems to be a parallelism between the two sides of the strait, with a projection on one side and an indentation on the other. However, the many bays and headlands are not evenly distributed.

There are many different current systems in the Bosphorus, such as eddies and turbulences. The narrowest and deepest parts of the strait are where the current velocity is strongest. Discharge in the throat; can be thought of as two separate rivers flowing in one bed, but in different directions. The water flowing from the surface is Black Sea, the deep flowing water is Mediterranean. Upper and lower currents; are very different from each other in terms of temperature, salinity and density. There is also a turbulent interlayer between these currents. While this turbulent interlayer is 10 meters thick in the Marmara Sea, it is only 2 meters at the Black Sea entrance. In addition, the indented and protruding shores of the Bosphorus can also cause countercurrent currents in the surface current. In such cases, the upper and lower currents mix together to form eddies.

What Bosphorus Dinner Cruise Includes

Whether if you are a tourist from local or international, if you decided to join the Bosphorus dinner cruise, the only thing you will get will not a simple beautiful view. Delicious authentic Turkish dinner will be just a start for you to enjoy your entertaining tourist attraction. After Gypsy and Caucasian dances you will also watch belly dance performances which are unique and popular in the world. Other different aspects of Turkish culture such as traditional henna ceremony and Turkish folk dance are also in the programme of the Bosphorus dinner cruise. Then, with live DJ performance you can get groove on in the relaxing Bosphorus atmosphere. By the Istanbul Tourist Pass privileges, you can have all of these with a discount of %50.