Suleymaniye Mosque seen from Tepebaşı (January 2005) Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul) is the largest city in Turkey, located in the northwest of the country where the Bosporus joins the Sea of Marmara. Until 1930 this city was commonly known among Westerners by its original Greek name Constantinople; some writings named it Stambul, especially in the 19th century. In Classical Antiquity it was known as Byzantium or Byzantion. With a population of between 11 and 15 million people, Istanbul is the most populous city of Turkey and by some counts one of the largest cities in Europe, although the city is partially in Asia, as it straddles the Bosporus strait. The city is also the administrative capital of Istanbul Province.
Founded by the Roman emperor Constantine on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium, and called Constantinople after him, it became the eastern capital of the Roman Empire and later the capital of the Byzantine Empire. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 it became part of the Ottoman Empire and soon its capital. Before the conquest Turks called the city İstanbul, but officially used the name Qustantaniyyeh (قسطنطنيه), which means "City of Constantine" in Arabic. Only on March 28, 1930, was the city officially renamed Istanbul.
The old city of Constantinople is mainly located on a peninsula defined by the Golden Horn to the north, the Bosporus (which separates Europe from Asia and the Black Sea from the Marmara Sea) to the east, and the Sea of Marmara to the south. However, the modern city is much larger and covers both European and Asian sides of the Bosporus. Famous tourist destinations include Sultanahmet, Kilyos, Sariyer, Eyüp and Taksim on the European side, and Beykoz, Sile, Üsküdar, Kadiköy and Adalar (the Prince's Islands) on the Asian side. Although Istanbul is no longer the capital of Turkey, it is still arguably the most important city to Turkish industry, commerce and culture and the most important import and export center.
Etymology of the name
Interior of Aya Sofia. Built as a church in 532-537 it was for centuries the largest enclosed space in the world. The Turks converted it to a mosque, and it became a museum in 1934 The name Istanbul comes from the Greek words (eis tin Poli) εις τήν Πόλι(ν) meaning "to/at the City" (the City/Polis being Constantinoupolis) . Two more examples of modern Turkish town names are İzmit (from Iznikmit which was Nicomedia and İznik (from Nicaea). While the Arab writers used Qustantiniyye, the Ottomans used also many epithets as its name: Pay-i taht, "the foot of the throne"; Asitane; and Islambol, "lots of Islam".
The intermediate form Stamboul was commonly used in the 19th century. Because of the custom of affixing an i before certain words that start with two consonants (as in "Izmir" from Smyrna: in a coincidence of s + m, the s turns to z in pronunciation as has been attested since early Byzantine times and in modern Greek usage), this was also used as Istambul. (The m in the middle is also the Turkish linguistic custom of changing the n before a p or b, as in çenber --> çember, anbar --> ambar, although rules like this are not always observed in proper nouns like Istanbul).
History Byzantium was the original name of the modern city of Istanbul. Byzantium was originally settled by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas. The name "Byzantium" is a Latinization of the original Greek name Byzantion (Βυζάντιον). Bυζαντιον is pronounced roughly Booz-dan-tee-on.
After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus the city was besieged by Rome and suffered extensive damage in 196 AD. Byzantium was rebuilt by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and quickly regained its previous prosperity. The location of Byzantium attracted Constantine the Great who, in 330 AD, refounded it as Nova Roma or Constantinoupolis after himself (Constantinople,Greek: Konstantinoupolis or Κωνσταντινούπολη or Κωνσταντινούπολις) after a prophetic dream was said to have identified the location of the city. The name Nova Roma never came into common use. The Eastern Roman Empire which had its capital in Constantinople from then until 1453, has often been called the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium by modern scholars.
The combination of imperialism and location would play an important role as the crossing point between two continents (Europe and Asia), and later a magnet for Africa and others as well, in terms of commerce, culture, diplomacy and strategy. At a strategic position, Constantinoupolis was able to control the route between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euxinos Pontos (Black Sea).
Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantine times the Greeks called Constantinople i Poli ("The City"), since it was the centre of the Greek world and for most of the Byzantine period the largest city in Europe. It was captured and sacked by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and then re-captured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261.
Yeni Camii (the New Mosque), one of the landmarks of Istanbul On May 29, 1453 the city fell to the Ottoman Turks (See the Fall of Constantinople) and was part of the Ottoman Empire until its official dissolution on November 1, 1922. The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or Istanbul. Since then it has remained a part of the Republic of Turkey (first declared on January 20, 1921, generally recognized on October 29, 1923).
When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved from Constantinople to Ankara. Istanbul became the official name in 1930.
Places to visit The cross-continent European walking route E8 trail begins/ends here, running 4700km to Cork, Ireland.
Seismic risk Istanbul is situated near the North Anatolian fault, an active fault which has been responsible for several deadly earthquakes in contemporary history. Studies show that there are high risks of a devastating earthquake near Istanbul in the coming decades.[1] (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1999/aug25/quake.html)[2] (http://archives.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/04/28/istanbul.quake.enn/) The proximity of the Marmara sea also indicates high risks of a tsunami should an earthquake occur. The difficulties of imposing suitable building rules is likely to result in a large number of collapses, especially in cheap masonry dwellings.[3] (http://atlas.cc.itu.edu.tr/~barka/pubs/ist_haz/istanbul.html)
Education
Airports - Atatürk International Airport (IST)
- Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW)
Districts Adalar Avcilar Bagcilar Bahçelievler Bahçesehir Bakirköy Bayrampasa Besiktas Beyoglu Buyukçekmece Beyköz Çatalca Eminönü Esenler Fatih Gaziosmanpasa Gungoren Kadiköy Kagithane Kartal Kuçukçekmece Maltepe Pendik Sariyer Sultanbeyli Sile Sisli Tuzla Umraniye Üsküdar Zeytinburnu
Sport
See also
Buildings
Istanbul as capital of...
External links - Description of Byzantine monetary system - 5th Century BC : History of money FAQ's (http://www.galmarley.com/framesets/fs_monetary_history_faqs.htm)
- Byzantine antiquities of Istanbul (http://www2.arch.uiuc.edu/research/rgouster/)
- Istanbul from Space (http://www.photoglobe.info/istanbul.html)
- Historic Pictures (http://mypage.iu.edu/~ktuncay/Turkey/index.html) Kagan Tuncay
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