The same writer goes on to say that he had found the last of the old Istanbul, which no foreigner would dare to enter, in the Eyup district. "In some places the side of a street resembles a vine-covered verandah from one end to the other, and in others the branches of the lime trees reach down to cover the pavement; sometimes a plane tree with light filtering between its leaves spreads its gigantic shade; the cypress trees, of which many are to be found in this part of the city, give it an even more melancholy air with their dark green verdure. At every step one encounters a play of light and shade that no artist would ever be able to get out of his mind."

A. von Warsberg, who spent the summer of 1864 in Istanbul, expresses his feelings for the city in this single line printed on the first page of his travelogue: "This book has been written only for those who have lived in and loved the country in question." With these lines about the EyOp district of the city, which he explored on 23 May,von Warsberg gives us an idea of how he saw the city. "The street is paved with clean stones and on either side there are walls faced with marble to which a feeling of mobility is given by half-columns and archways. At the end can be seen shrines protruding into the street at intervals. Their windows are covered with gilded lattice-work; thick clumps of rose bushes lie between them and ancient plane, mulberry and maple trees form a cupola above. This is a city of the dead but instead of the horror of death one finds a place where those tired of living may take refuge in the tranquillity of being forgotten in the wonderful garden of sleep until they are awakened by the trumpets of the Last Judgement to a new and better eternal life."

The famous American satirist Mark Twain (1835-1910), who sailed to Istanbul in 1867, states in his book "Innocents Abroad" that he found Istanbul interesting viewed from afar; however, as soon as he disembarked, this incomparable view dissolved. Its inhabitants wore a motley assortment of clothing, some were dressed in traditional clothes with crimson fezzes on their heads, "their apparel being whatever happened to please them". Among the street sellers who aroused such astonishment in Twain was a gooseherd who walked the streets driving a flock of up to one hundred geese in front of him. For the American writer, who found Ayasofia dark and dirty, the dance of the Mevlevi dervishes was "the most barbaric manifestation I have seen to this day". The most striking pages of his book of travels are those about the slave market. He states that female slaves were sold quite openly there, and, tongue in cheek, records the price in dollars of the slaves bought and sold. This visitor from the new world did not enjoy his visit to a Turkish bath, either.

E. Jouve, a Frenchman who was an Istanbul in 1854 as correspondent of Courrier de Lyon (this was during the Crimean War), found the city in a wretched state. The Turkish troops had European-style uniforms that did not suit them at all. He compared the shrine of Mahmut II, which had recently been built on Divanyolu to the Trianon and described this shrine with its gilded railings as "un joli palais Parisien" (a pretty Parisian palace). Jouve dwells on the famous stray dogs of Istanbul, recounting a strange piece of gossip as he does so: namely that of an English family of eight who had been foolish enough to walk in the city at night only the heels of his lordship's shoes and the handle of her ladyship's umbrella had ever been found and that not of trace remained of their six children(!) The French journalist, however, had no complaints about these dogs. 'Rigoletto' wa on at the theatre in Beyo~lu, the construction of the Dolmabahçe Palace was under way and the Greeks of Istanbul , whom Jouve did not like at all, were of the belief that it was the site of the emperor's palace of a recrudescent Byzantine empire. In criticism of a European diplomacy that was bent on creating a Greek state, he stressed that the Turks had created a city far more beautiful than the one existing on their arrival in Istanbul on 29 May 1453. Jouve stated that many things in Istanbul were much better than in the West and pointed to the superiority of the military hospitals. He went on to say that the attempts of the Turks to westernise had been unjustly criticised. I-fe expressed the opinion that many things seemed to be of a random nature but that the people who created this disorder were mainly Levantines guided by their own interests. These persons were "neither do nor wolf and they exploit the fortunes of both the Turks and the Europeans." L. Bunel, who spent several weeks in Istanbul at about this time, described the magnificence of the homes of the Greeks in the Fener district and the wealth of their inhabitants, contrasting them with the poverty of the Jews in nearby Balat. However, the thing that astonished him most was the fact that the residential area of Galata had a graveyard inside it.This was the “KOçOk Mezaristan”, or “Little Graveyard” of which no trace now exists, that was located between the Tepeba~i and ~i~hane neighbourhoods. This was the place referred to by Europeans as “Le Petit Champs des Morts”, a place where Turks sat in the shade of the Cypress trees to rest, a quiet corner in which to smoke a pipe.