Beyond the End of the Orient Express
Inside Istanbul's Pera Palace Hotel, where Agatha Christie, Atatürk and a century of legends share the same corridors
It was the night of December 3, 1926, when Agatha Christie, one of the world’s most celebrated crime writers, disappeared.
After a fight with her husband, who had requested a divorce, Christie left their Sunningdale home and drove off into the night. The following morning, her car was discovered abandoned near a chalk quarry in Newlands Corner, Surrey. Her empty car—containing her driver’s license and a coat— sparked a massive manhunt across several English counties involving thousands of police officers and volunteers.
She was found eleven days later, on December 15, at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire (now known as the Old Swan Hotel), alive and physically unharmed. She had checked in under the name Teresa Neele, telling the hotel staff that she was a grieving mother who had arrived from South Africa.
Christie claimed she could not remember a single moment of the days that followed her disappearance. That memory gap gave rise to an enduring urban legend some 2,600 kilometres away.
Just a few steps from Istanbul’s bustling Istiklal Street, near the Galata Tower in Türkiye, stands one of the city’s most historic hotels. It opened its doors in 1895, when the city was still known as Constantinople and the country was ruled by sultans.
It is the Pera Palace Hotel, which later became known around the world as the place where Christie is believed to have written one of her most iconic novels, Murder on the Orient Express.
I have always been fascinated by the novel, its film and theatre adaptations, and the recent Turkish series set here. Although I had walked past the hotel dozens of times, I had never had the opportunity to step inside. About a month ago, I had the honour of touring its historic halls with the hotel’s marketing coordinator, Ezgi Pek, who guided me through every corner of this iconic establishment.
The Pera Palace Hotel was built to accommodate the wealthy passengers of the Orient Express, which traveled from Paris to Istanbul across half of Europe, making it the first luxury hotel in Türkiye. It has six floors and 115 guest rooms and suites. Guests moved between them in the country’s first electric elevator and only the second in Europe, which is still operating today.
“Would you like to try it?”, Ezgi asked, and I couldn’t resist.
Stepping inside the century-old elevator, crafted from mahogany and ornate cast iron in the Art Nouveau style, was undoubtedly one of the highlights of my visit.
The second highlight was the legend surrounding Agatha Christie. Room 411, better known as the Agatha Christie Room —where the writer have stayed during her visits in the city— is available for guests at a higher rate than the hotel’s standard rooms, with prices averaging around €400 per night, depending on the season. Inside, visitors can find a vintage typewriter on the desk, a private library, and furniture dating back to the early twentieth century.
Unfortunately, when I visited the hotel, the room was occupied and I didn’t have the chance to go inside.
According to legend, Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express here. Even more intriguing, however, is another story linking Room 411 to her mysterious eleven-day disappearance.
After Christie’s death, Warner Bros. wanted to make a film about the disappearance. With little reliable information to work with, the company reportedly turned to the American psychic, Tamara Rand. During a séance, Rand claimed to have seen Christie hiding a key beneath the floorboards of the room. According to the story, Warner Bros. contacted the hotel, and a key was allegedly discovered exactly where the psychic had described.
Then a dispute arose between the studio and the hotel’s management over ownership of the key, and no agreement was ever reached. Rand reportedly insisted that the key be sent to her so she could continue her investigation. The dispute lasted many years, and when Rand died, the mystery was left unsolved.
Today, a replica of the key is displayed at the hotel —while the real one is secured in a safe— alongside photographs, newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia connected to the legend. As we walked past the glass display cases, I couldn’t help wondering where history ended and legend began.
But Christie is only one of the many figures whose story became intertwined with the history of Pera Palace.
I did, however, have the opportunity to step inside the Mustafa Kemal Atatürk room, which has been preserved exactly as it was during his stays at the hotel and now functions as a small museum.
Inside, alongside a lifelike statue of the founder of modern Türkiye and several of his personal belongings, is displayed the famous carpet that, according to the legend, foretold Atatürk’s death. It is believed to have been a gift from an Indian maharaja during his visit to the city in 1929. The carpet features an embroidered clock pointing roughly to 9:05 and eleven yellow chrysanthemums, which believers claim predicted the exact time and date of Atatürk’s death nine years later (9:05 AM on November 10, 1938).
The stories do not end here.
As we wandered through the hotel’s corridors, I admired its artwork, including portraits of former owners, among them the Greek businessman Prodromos Bodosakis-Athanasiades. As a Greek I wanted to learn more about him. According to the story, when he first visited the hotel in the early 1900s, his modest appearance failed to reflect his wealth, prompting the hotel staff to turn him away. Offended by the incident, he decided to take his revenge: he bought the hotel and dismissed the very employees who had refused him entry.
A few years later, following the Greco-Turkish War and the population exchange, Bodosakis left Istanbul and settled in Athens, where he became one of Greece’s greatest benefactors.
The stories that fill the hallways of this hotel are countless, as are the famous people who have walked its corridors. From Ernest Hemingway and Alfred Hitchcock to Greta Garbo and Queen Elizabeth II. It is a place where history and legend have become so intertwined that separating one from the other no longer seems to matter.
By the time I left, I realised that Pera Palace is impossible to understand in a single visit. Every corridor, every room and every object seems to carry another story. Some are documented, others have grown into legend. Perhaps that is what makes the hotel so captivating. Long after the last passengers stepped off the Orient Express, people are still arriving, not just to spend the night, but to become part of its story.
All photographs by the author.
Writing soundtrack:
Pardon by Sezen Aksu