Sirkeci is a quarter in the Eminönü neighborhood of the Fatih district of the city of Istanbul, Turkey. The neighborhood borders to the North the mouth of the Golden Horn, to the West the neighborhood of Bahçekapı, to the East the Topkapi Palace area, and to the South the Cağaloğlu neighborhood. Sirkeci hosts Sirkeci Station, the Southeastern (thus "Oriental") long distance passenger train terminus in Europe for the Orient Express.The neighborhood consists mostly of commercial and tourist oriented uses. A combination of small shops, hans (larger workshops), offices intermingle with boutique hotels, traditional Turkish restaurants, Turkish and foreign-language bookstores, and tourist offices.In the Byzantine period, the area was known as Phosphorion.TransportationFamous as the terminating point for the Orient Express, Sirkeci remains one of the main travel hubs for Istanbul, connecting suburban train, tram and ferry systems. The Sirkeci Station of the Turkish State Railways is the terminating node of the European railway network leading into Istanbul, the two main lines from Thessaloniki, Greece and Bucharest, Romania. Moreover, this is the terminal of the suburban railway line leading to Halkalı along the Marmara shore. The Marmaray project under construction, an underwater railway tunnel being built under the Bosporus connecting the European and Asian networks, will also serve this area.
