July 24, 2010
On the western Black Sea coast of Turkey (officially called the Republic of Türkiye), a two-month series of celebrations continued for the 150th anniversary of when a lighthouse in the district and municipality of Şile first went into service. The big commemorative effort on July 24 involved having this structure — known as Şile Lighthouse (Şile Feneri) — dressed up from top to bottom in a light cotton fabric that had been woven in that part of Turkey. The specific fabric used for this occasion was the widely renowned Şile cloth.
The Şeli Feneri had been commissioned by Abdülmecid I (1823-1861), the 31st sultan of the Ottoman Empire. (Present-day Turkey was formed not long after the abolition of the Ottoman Empire in 1922.) French engineers began building this masonry lighthouse in 1859. The Şeli Feneri was officially inaugurated the following year.
Along with being festooned with fabric to help celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2010, the Şeli Feneri was honored with a commemorative stamp issued by the Turkish Post on May 1 of that year. This 62 foot (19-meter)-tall lighthouse remains in operation today.
Photo Credit: User:Darwinek (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)
For more information on the Şeli Feneri, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Eile_Lighthouse
Additional information on lighthouses in Turkey is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lighthouses_in_Turkey
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