Üsküdar

Üsküdar is the conservative, devout, deeply old face of the Asian shore — a skyline of Sinan mosques rising straight from the ferry landing, with the Maiden's Tower marooned on its rock just offshore. This is heritage country more than gallery country, and the editorial should say so. The art that is here runs to the specialised and the traditional: a museum of printmaking, the calligraphy and craft that the imperial mosques still teach by their surfaces. Above the district, the vast Çamlıca mosque crowns one of the highest hills in the city. The pace is slow. The subject is centuries deep.