Istanbul

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Touristic Information The Megarian leader, Byzas, consulted the Delphic oracle of Apollo about the location to build his new colony, the oracle told him to settle it across from the "land of the blind ones". He went to the site of, present day, Istanbul and saw a colony settled on the Asian side of the Bosphorus and concluded that those must be the blind ones since they missed the beautiful port of today's Golden Horn. He then established the city in the 7th century BC. In 326 AD Constantine took over Byzantium and officially renamed it to as Constantinople. In 1453, Mehmet II took over Constantinople and called it Istanbul.

Immortalized in ancient art and literature, Istanbul is today a sprawling metropolis connecting two continents: Asia and Europe. It has almost 12 million inhabitants spread throughout three major sections of the city. The old part of Istanbul is the old city of Byzantium surrounded by the original city walls on one side, by the Golden Horn on another and by the Sea of Marmara on the third side. The new and modernized section, built at the end of the 19th century, is the current business center of Istanbul. The final section, separated from the European region by the Bosphorus, the Asian side, is the residential side.
Istanbul has an infinite variety of museums, ancient churches, palaces, great mosques, and bazaars. Please choose any of the following links to read the descriptions for the sites and museums in Istanbul

Blue Mosque	Kariye Museum	The Land Walls
Beylerbeyi Palace	Rumeli Hisar Fortress	The Underground Cisterns
Dolmabahce Palace	Saint Sophia Museum	Topkapi Palace
Grand Bazaar	Suleymaniye Mosque	The Bosphorus

Blue Mosque Blue Mosque and the Golden Horn

The Blue Mosque was built between 1609 and 1616 by Mehmet Aga, a student of the Great Architect Sinan. It has 260 widows and 6 minarets forming an impressive skyline that can be seen from the sea. It was also originally built as a complex consisting of a covered bazaar, a Turkish bath, a soup kitchen for the poor, a hospital, schools, and later tomb of Sultan Ahmet I. Unfortunately not all of the structures have survived. The inside of the Blue Mosque is covered by more than 20.000 Iznik tiles, the floor is covered with carpets and the murals are inscribed with verses from the Koran.

Saint Sophia Museum Santa Sophia Museum was built originally by the famous architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus during Emperor Justinian kingdom in 532-537 A.D. St. Sophia was originally the largest church in the Christian world and it took six years to be completed. An earthquake at 556 AD ruined the dome and the church was reconstructed in 558 AD. In 1453, Mehmet II conquered Istanbul converting the city and the church to Islam. Today, the beautiful Christian mosaics and Islamic calligraphy testify the spiritual beauty and harmony of both religions.

Suleyman Mosque

The mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, where he and his wife are buried, is considered the most beautiful of all imperial mosques in Istanbul. It was built between 1550 and 1557 by the famous architect Sinan. It's conspicuous by its great size, emphasized by the 4 minarets rising one from each corner of the courtyard. Adjoining the mosque were theological schools, a school of medicine, a soup kitchen and hospice for the poor, a caravansary and a Turkish bath.

Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace is located on the peninsula that overlooks the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, the palace complex is surrounded by three miles of walls. It is the oldest and largest of the remaining palaces in the world. Built for Sultan Mehmet II, the superb palace was completed in 1479 after 14 years of work. Typical of Turkish palaces, it has a series of open courtyards with trees connecting famous building as the Harem. Consisting of about 400 rooms, it was the domestic realm of the Sultan where he kept in captivity his wives, Children, eunuchs, and concubines.

Dolmabahçe Palace

Dolmabahçe Palace was built in the mid 19th century by Sultan Abdulmecit, it has an impressive 600 meter frontage by the Bosphorus. The most important part is the vast reception salon with 56 columns and a huge crystal chandelier of 4,5 tons with 750 lights. The Bird Pavilion is unique and the architecture of the Harem is a stark contrast to the rest of the palace. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - founder of the Turkish Republic, died there on 10th of Nov, 1938.

Beylerbeyi Palace

Beylerbeyi Palace was built with white marble by Sultan Abdulaziz in the 19th century on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, the palace possesses a beautiful garden with magnolia trees. It was used as a summer residence of the sultans and a guest house for foreign dignitaries.

Kariye Museum
(Saint Saviour in Chora)
The meaning of the word "chora" is “rural area”, and this came to be the name of churches built in the 5th century. The last of these churches that still stands today dates back to the 11th and 14th century. The mosaics and frescoes of the interior are heralded as the renaissance of Byzantine art.

The Underground Cisterns

Close to St. Sophia is the Byzantine cistern dated from the 6th century and known as the Underground Palace. Inside, its fine brick vaulting is supported by 336 Corinthian columns.

The Bosphorus Bosphorus is the strait which separates Asia from Europe, its shores are between a third of a mile and two miles apart. It is lined with cafes, restaurants, taverns, Yali's (residences) and several palaces. From Istanbul to the Black Sea the shoreline measures nineteen miles. The view of the Bosphorus from any of these establishments is amazing with its fishing boats, water skiers, swimmers, and flights of storks and eagles. Silently watching all this progress for centuries are the two imposing stone fortresses, Anadolu Hisari (1390) and Rumeli Hisari (1452).

Rumeli Hisar Fortress

The Rumelian Fortress, was built in only 4 months by Fatih Sultan Mehmet in 1452 before the conquest of Istanbul. One of the most beautiful works of military architecture anywhere in the world, it is now used as the setting for some events such as concerts, theaters, etc.

The Land Walls

Built in the 5th century by the Emperor Theodosius II, these walls with some Sections completely restored, stretch 7 km from the Sea of Marmara to the Golden Horn. With many towers and bastions, they were once the strongest fortifications in Christendom.

Grand Bazaar The Grand Bazaar is one of the oldest covered market places in the world. Its labyrinth tunnels contain over 4.000 shops where all kinds of carpets, trinkets, jewelry, and clothes can be purchased. The Bazaar is located in Beyazit Square at the end of Yeniceri Caddesi (Avenue of the Janissaries).

Location Do you know where Turkey is? Do you know where Istanbul is located? Click in the world bellow to begin you trip to Istanbul !