For four centuries this slope belonged to the palace. Gulhane was the outer garden of Topkapi, a place where the court walked and ordinary Istanbul did not. It became a public park in 1912, and the change is still legible: the wall along its eastern edge is the palace wall.
What visitors notice first is the scale of the plane trees, some of them older than the republic. The avenue beneath them runs the length of the park and is level enough to walk without effort. Tulips fill the beds in April, and a small terrace at the lower end looks across the water.
The park is free and opens early, which makes the first hour after sunrise the best of the day here. From Hotel Sultania it is a few minutes on foot, and the upper gate puts you directly beside Topkapi Palace.