Fatih Sultan Mehmet Nature Park, also known as the Fatih Forest, lies in the Sarıyer district of İstanbul, south-west of Sarıyer and south-east of the Belgrade Forest. It covers 111.85 hectares and was established by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in 2011. It is named after Mehmed the Conqueror, the Ottoman sultan who took İstanbul in 1453.
The park is open for day recreation, and there are playgrounds for children. For safety, the marshy ground around the pond is avoided. Entry is charged for both visitors and vehicles.
The park lies within the Fatih Forest, whose cover is dense and of middling age. The trees are mostly broadleaf, though there are conifers as well: Kasnak and Turkey oak, hornbeam, sweet chestnut, oriental plane, ash and blackthorn, with black pine among the conifers.
In the undergrowth grow bramble, butcher's broom, tree heath, Japanese laurel, laurustinus, Japanese pittosporum and ivy.
Because of where it stands, the park is a habitat for the wildlife of the Belgrade Forest. Its mammals are wild boar, wolf, jackal, fox, squirrel and mole, and among the birds are sparrows, finches, woodpeckers and magpies.
- Designated
- 11.07.2011
Entry fee
- Marmara group 2 · category 1 · Per person
- 75 ₺
When to go
- Climate
- Across İstanbul as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6.8 °C in January to 24.7 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (99 mm) and lightest in July (22 mm). Long-term means for 1950-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
