Garden in the Middle of the Highway: Ataşehir

1. 01
   Nature

   Enter the Junction Garden

   Start at the Ataşehir entrance of Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanical Garden and step into a place that began in 1995 as a memorial project. Ali Nihat Gökyiğit had trees planted in memory of his late wife, Nezahat Gökyiğit, and the garden opened to the public in 2002. Today it covers forty-six hectares and holds nearly fifty thousand trees and shrubs, all inside the interchange where the three bridge roads meet.

   Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi Ataşehir Kapısı, Istanbul, Turkey
2. 02
   Exploration

   Cross from Island to Island

   Continue to the Arboretum Island entrance and explore how the garden is not a single piece of land. It is made up of eight islands separated by traffic lanes and connected by underpasses and overpasses. On Arboretum Island alone, there are more than seven hundred woody plant species, so as you move from one collection to another, intercity traffic is flowing above or below your feet.

   NGBB Arboretum Adası girişi, Istanbul, Turkey
3. 03
   Photography

   Find the Collection Among the Stones

   Head to the rock garden section to see a collection built for species that live in dry, stony environments. The rock garden contains more than five hundred rock plants, and a separate section holds over four hundred bulb plant taxa. This stop is strongly seasonal: in April and May it looks completely different, while in November it can feel almost empty because many bulbs spend most of the year underground and appear for only a few weeks in spring.

   NGBB Kaya Bahçesi, Istanbul, Turkey
4. 04
   Culture

   Understand What This Place Really Is

   Finish around the pond and herbarium area with the key idea of the whole visit: this is not just a park, but a working scientific institution. The garden has its own herbarium, where thousands of barcoded plant specimens are stored, making it one of the centers for research on the plants of Turkey. More than two hundred thousand visitors come here each year.

   NGBB Gölet çevresi, Istanbul, Turkey

Check opening hours before you go. Hours, access conditions and weather can change.