Introduction to Geography of Istanbul
Istanbul, Turkey, the largest city in Turkey and the industrial, commercial, and cultural center of the nation. Istanbul, formerly the capital of the Byzantine Empire and later of the Ottoman Empire, was for centuries one of the world's preeminent cities.
Istanbul lies partly in Europe and partly in Asia on the traditional land route between Europe and Asia Minor. It commands the sea route connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The city's site has been of great commercial and military significance for centuries.
Istanbul has highly variable weather, with chilly to cold winters and warm to hot summers. Precipitation, including snow, is about 30 inches (760 mm) a year and falls mostly during winter.
General Plan
Istanbul is built on hills on both sides of the Bosporus, a narrow strait linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. The main part is on the European side of the Bosporus, where the Golden Horn, a deep estuary, juts inland to form Istanbul's harbor. The port district is called Galata. South of the Golden Horn is the oldest and most historic part of the city. It occupies a triangular peninsula and is the site of the city's great mosques and other monumental buildings. North of the Golden Horn are modern and fashionable commercial and residential areas. Across the Bosporus, in Asia, is Usküdar, an ancient city that is now part of Istanbul. The total area of Istanbul is 98 square miles (254 km2).
Economy
Commerce has long been a significant part of Istanbul's economy; manufacturing has developed mostly since the mid-20th century. Products are varied, ranging from textiles and foods to electronic equipment and ships. Many items, including brassware, carpets, and jewelry, are still made by hand. International banking, service industries, and tourism are becoming increasingly important.
The European and Asian parts of Istanbul are linked by ferries and by the Bosporus Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. The port serves both regional to European and Asian destinations. Istanbul's international airport, nearby at Yeşilköy, is Turkey's busiest airport.
Main Attractions
Domes and minarets of several hundred mosques, some of them on hilltops, form the chief features of the city's skyline. Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine church for more than 900 years, then a mosque, and now a museum, is probably the city's best-known building. Also outstanding are the Suleiman I Mosque (built during 1549–57), the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, or Blue Mosque (1609–16), and the Kariye Mosque, famed for its 13th- and 14th-century Byzantine mosaics and frescoes.
Topkapi Palace, situated on the city's founding site overlooking the mouth of the Golden Horn, was the walled residence of the Ottoman rulers for nearly 400 years. Within the palace are many of the treasures acquired by the Ottomans during their long reign. Nearby are the Archaeological Museum, which includes Greek, Roman, and Byzantine antiquities, and the Museum of the Ancient Orient, a branch of the Archaeological Museum. Dolmabahçe Palace, built farther north on the Bosporus, was the home of the Ottoman sultans from 1853 until the end of World War I.
The Grand, or Covered, Bazaar is an enormous multidomed structure with some 4,000 booths and shops where merchants have sold and traded goods since 1461. The Egyptian Bazaar, opened in 1660, is a large food and spice market. Old walls, gates, and towers, dating from the fifth and seventh centuries, stand at the city's western edge.
Educational institutions include Istanbul University, Istanbul Technical University, and Marmara University. The Ataturk Cultural Center, north of the Golden Horn, is home to the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet.
History
The original community, called Byzantium, was settled by Greek colonists about 660 B.C. In 330 A.D. Roman emperor Constantine (I) the Great built a new capital, named New Rome but soon known as Constantinople, at Byzantium. As capital of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire, Constantinople became the world's richest city, with a population of some 600,000 at the time of Justinian the Great, 527–65. It was a center of trade and culture. Justinian rebuilt much of the city; among his splendid new structures was Hagia Sophia.
Constantinople was well fortified. Its inhabitants repulsed attacks by Avars and Arabs in the 7th century, Arabs again in the 8th, Bulgars in the 9th, Russians in the 10th, and Turks in the 11th.
New conflict developed when the Crusaders began coming from Europe to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Roman Catholic Crusaders regarded the Eastern Orthodox Byzantines as heretics. In 1204 the Fourth Crusade was suddenly turned against Constantinople, and the city fell to the Crusaders. Its buildings were looted and destroyed, its libraries burned, and its golden art objects melted down. The bronze horses from the Hippodrome were carried off to Venice to adorn St. Mark's. Constantinople served as capital of the Latin Empire (the Crusader realm) until 1261, when the Byzantines regained control.
Although the city resumed its brilliant cultural and social life, it never recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade. Many of the great buildings stood in ruins, the money for repairs increasingly scarce as the empire shrank before the advance of the Ottoman Turks. In 1347 the Black Death wiped out about a third of the population. A fire destroyed much of the city in 1434, and an earthquake damaged it further in 1440. Still, Constantinople withstood periodic attacks from the Ottomans.
At last in 1453 the Turks had taken all the empire but the capital itself. They needed to gain control of the Golden Horn (the harbor) in order to attack by sea as well as by land, but found the Bosporus entrance to it impregnable. So they built a road from the Bosporus to the harbor, lifted their warships onto wheeled cradles, and hauled them overland. Five weeks later the city fell.
As capital of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople flourished again. It was lavishly rebuilt and restored to its prime position in world commerce. The Turks often called it Istanbul, or Stamboul. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, Ankara was made the capital, and in 1930 Constantinople was given its present name.
Population: 10,018,735.