Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute is an educational institution operating under Boğaziçi University. Kandilli Observatory, one of the important institutions in the history of Turkish science, is located on a hill overlooking the Bosphorus, in the Kandilli District of Üsküdar district on the Anatolian side of Istanbul.
Kandilli Observatory was established in 1868 under the name of Observatory-i Amire. The French government supported the establishment of the observatory in order to transmit the weather forecasts to other centers by telegraph. Aristide Coumbary was the first director of the observatory, which was established on a 74-meter-high hill in Pera with the observation instruments purchased from Europe.
It was destroyed during the 31 March Incident (12 April 1909) and moved to Maçka. It was moved to Kandilli, where it is still located, in 1911 by Fatin Hoca (Gökmen), a mathematician and clergyman.
The Observatory, which remained affiliated to the Ministry of National Education until 1982, was transferred to Boğaziçi University in 1982. Later, with the decree numbered 28.03.1983, which was enacted by the law dated 2809 and numbered 41; within the university; It was renamed the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KRDAE). Within the scope of the Institute; There are earthquake engineering, geodesy, geophysics departments and astronomy, geomagnetism and meteorology laboratories.
