Rumeli Han

Istanbul · Turkiet · Historic building

A forgotten tunnel opens beneath the arcade — the road the harem girl Perizat took when she fled toward a love that was forbidden.

Sarıcazade Ragıp Pasha raised Rumeli Han on İstiklal Caddesi in 1894 and named it after one of the empire's three continents. What made the building talked about, though, lies beneath it. Beyoğlu rests on a web of passages, and one entrance to that underground city is inside Rumeli Han — rediscovered during a restoration in 2017. The legend ties the tunnel to a woman named Perizat, a harem girl caught with her lover, who is said to have taken the underground road out of her confinement to look for him. In the telling she never found him, and it is her search that continues in the darkness beneath the street where thousands walk every evening. The passage is open again, and those who go down describe cold air from a direction nobody can point out.

FAQ

Where is Rumeli Han located?

Rumeli Han is in Istanbul, Turkiet.

More haunted places in Istanbul