However, with the dwindling of Turkey's minorities, the make-up of the local population is now virtually indistinguishable from the rest of Istanbul.

The island was home to short-story writer Sait Faik Abasıyanık whose house, originally called Spanudis Mansion, is sometimes open to visitors.

[4] The Church of Iohannes Prodromos (John the Baptist), built in 1899, dominates the small town on the island.

The site was originally occupied by a Byzantine church which became a prison for St Methodius the Confessor, who was exiled here for his opposition to iconoclasm but eventually went on to become the Greek patriarch.

[5] The Monastery of Hagios Georgios Garipi was largely built in 1897 and had to be extensively restored after the 1999 Marmara Earthquake.