Pendik is a district of Istanbul, Turkey on the Asian side between Kartal and Tuzla, on the Marmara Sea. Population is approx. 625,000.
History
There are records of settlements in Pendik going back to the Ancient Macedonians of 5,000 years ago, a Roman settlement in 753 BC, and many more conquests. In 1080, the town was taken over by the Seljuk Turks, and recaptured by the Byzantines in 1086 and so on. During the Byzantine era, the place was called Pantikion or Pentikion, and before that Pantikàpion and Pantikàpeum in Greek (as the town had five walls, or five gates, or both). Pendik was always a retreat from the city, and by the 20th century was peppered with holiday and weekend homes of Istanbul's wealthy.
Pendik Today
Until the 1970s Pendik was a rural area, far from the city. Today Pendik is a crowded mix of working class housing (especially further towards the E5 motorway) with more expensive apartments with sea views along the coast. There is a busy shopping district (with a large street market on Saturdays), restaurants and movie theaters.
Pendik is far from downtown Istanbul and public transport to the city is by mainly by slow buses and minibuses. There used to be suburban trains running from Haydarpasa to Pendik railway station but as part of the Marmaray project this line is currently out of service (it is expected to reopen in 2015). Since 25 July 2014, high-speed services to Ankara start from this station, pending termination of the upgrades on the line to Istanbul proper. For now, to get to central Istanbul from here, it is necessary to take a Dolmus to Bostanci or Kadikoy and then a boat. The other option is a taxi to Kartal metro station (about 10 minutes or 5km away).
The coastal road is fast but does not carry public transport, except for the bus 16A which only runs until 8pm and the Kadikoy-Bostanci-Pendik dolmus. There is road construction going on in the Pendik/Tuzla/Gebze region, which has seen industrial development in the 1990s.
Over the centuries, Bosniaks have migrated to Turkey, with a large number arriving after the Austro-Hungarian campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878. Many settled in the Pendik district of Sapanbağları. Apart from naming their streets and shops after their village in Bosnia, these people have blended into the Istanbul working-class lifestyle of the rest of Pendik.
In the late 1990s two private educational institutions were built inland from Pendik, Koç Özel Lisesi and Sabancı University. The area has a Formula One racetrack. There is a high-speed boat across the Marmara Sea to Yalova for people travelling out of the city to Bursa and the Aegean. Sabiha Gökçen airport is near.
