Kuleli Military High School, Military high school in Çengelköy, Turkey
The former military high school is a white structure with pointed towers on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus in Çengelköy. The complex runs along the waterfront and combines Ottoman construction methods with 19th-century European school design.
Sultan Abdülmecid I commissioned the institution in 1845 to train Ottoman officers using modern methods. After more than 170 years of operation it closed in the summer of 2016 and was later converted into a museum.
The name comes from Turkish and means tower, referring to the pointed structures that rise above the waterfront facade. Visitors today can walk through rooms where generations of Ottoman officers trained and get a sense of how military life was organized in earlier centuries.
The museum sits close to the shore and can be reached by public ferries or buses from Üsküdar. Visitors interested in Ottoman military history should allow enough time to explore the exhibition rooms.
Garabed Balyan, the Armenian architect, designed the structure as part of his work for the Ottoman court in the 19th century. The towers once served to remind students of discipline and military order by rising high and visible above the strait.
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