Levent

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Levent is a neighborhood in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul, Turkey. It has about 2,900 residents (2022) and is one of the city’s main business districts on the European side, north of the Golden Horn and along the western shore of the Bosphorus. Along with nearby Maslak, Levent hosts many skyscrapers, creating a modern skyline hidden behind the hills that protects the area’s view of the historic city.

The tallest building in Levent is Istanbul Sapphire (54 floors, 238 meters tall, 261 meters with its spire). It was the tallest in Istanbul and Turkey from 2010 to 2016. By 2020 it ranked fourth tallest in Istanbul and Turkey, behind Metropol Istanbul Tower 1 and the Skyland Istanbul Towers.

Levent is served by the M2 metro line, with the Levent and 4. Levent stations. The name Levent comes from Levend (Levantine), a term used for Ottoman Navy sailors. The area got its name after a naval officer was granted farmland here in 1780, and a military camp was built in the early 1800s.

The area’s development began in 1947 when a bank built a large residential complex. The neighborhood expanded in the following decades, and from the late 1980s and 1990s many banks and companies built tall towers, turning Levent into a major skyline cluster on the European side, alongside Maslak and Şişli, with new shopping centers and mixed-use skyscrapers still rising.