Short Paper The Effect of Transportation System in

historical environment; spatial abondenment; space syntax; topography This paper uses the space syntax methodology to decipher the creation of the physical map of the historical commercial district of Süleymaniye. Süleymaniye is located in the historical urban centre of Istanbul and exhibits many historical architectural features. Since most of the commercial and residential areas are not open to use today, many buildings are old and physically damaged. Space syntax is found to be a fertile means to investigate the reasons behind the relationship between this emptiness and the urban heritage itself. First of all the physical depth analysis of the district is made by using space syntax. Then, the continuity and interaction values of the streets are found by line analysis. As a result, the high and low real integration values of the streets are determined. Although the initial expectation was to have high values in high circulated streets, the study found that high valued streets have lowest circulation of vechiles and people. The historical and spatial reasons of this unexpected result is that the district is divided into zones by topography and historical sustaining walls, which create a strong factor. This factor plays a significant role in the spatial abandonment in some areas. The zones with low integration values have the highest abandonment level. The paper does also indicate that topography has a descent effect other than urban spatial configuration. Finally the paper attempts at contributing to the development of new projects in Süleymaniye district which can restructure it and enhance its conditions. 1. Introduction: Objective an