ORHAN PAMUK’S ISTANBUL -- 19

NEW YORK TIMES WORDS/STEVE WRIGHT IMAGES

On the south side of the Golden Horn, we pushed past crowds in the Baharat spice bazaar, and emerged on a busy street in the Eminonu neighborhood.

In his childhood, Mr. Pamuk was fascinated by stories about the Ottoman sultans and pashas who ruled from this quarter of Istanbul, the site of rebellions, coups and secret jails where fearsome punishments were meted out.

“One place in Eminonu was especially constructed for what was known as the Hook,” Mr. Pamuk wrote in “Istanbul.”

“Wearing nothing but the suit in which he emerged from his mother’s womb, the condemned was winched up with pulleys, skewered with a sharp hook, and, as the cord was released, left to drop.”

-Joshua Hammer