Ayvansaray
Ayvansaray is a neighbourhood in Fatih district on the European side of Istanbul. Located in the historical peninsula, the neighbourhood was established on the southern shores of the Golden Horn. Balat lies to the east, Defterdar neighbourhood of Eyüpsultan to the west, Golden Horn to the north and Edirnekapı to the south. Ayvansaray is located where the Blakernai neighbourhood was established in the Byzantine period. There are several opinions about the origin of the name of the district. One of them is that the neighbourhood was called ‘animal palace’ due to the fact that some exotic animals belonging to the palace, especially elephants, were housed in the Blaherne Palace here during the Ottoman period; this changed over time and turned into Ayvansaray. Another common belief is that the name of the neighbourhood comes from the word ‘eyvan’.
