Istanbul Animals: #06 Emirgan Park

The Emirgan Park is a historical urban park located at the Emirgan neighbourhood in the Sarıyer district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the European coast of the Bosphorus. It is one of the largest public parks in Istanbul. Emirgan Park is famous for its squirrels.

In the Byzantine era, the entire area where today the park stretches was covered with cypress trees and known as "Kyparades" or "Cypress Forest". It became known as "Feridun Bey Park", when the uninhabited land was granted in the mid-16th century to Nişancı Feridun Bey, a Lord Chancellor in rank in the Ottoman Empire.

In the 17th century, Ottoman Sultan Murad IV (reigned 1623-1640) presented the estate to Emir Gûne Han, a Safavid Persian commander, who surrendered his sieged castle without any resistance, and followed him back to Constantinople. The name "Feridun Bey Park" was changed to "Emirgûne", which in time became corrupted to "Emirgan".