Istanbul the great city

Istanbul ,one of the great historical cities of the world, is the only city in the world located upon two continents with one arm reaching out to Asia and the other arm to Europe. Through the city's heart runs the sea channel called the Bosphorus which reaches north to The Black Sea and south to the Marmara Sea. Istanbul is located in the Marmara region of Turkey and is a major seaport city as well as an industrial, commercial, educational and financial center and trade center. Manufactures include ship building, glass, textiles, shoes and cement. The city's inhabitants is about twelve million.The city is divided into three parts - the old city , the new city and the Asiatic side. The old town and new town which encompass the greater part of the city are located in Europe. The Asiatic side can be reached from the European side by two bridges, the Bosphorus Bridge, one of the world's longest suspension bridges and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge. The Old City and the New City are separated by the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus. It is a natural channel seven km long and is connected by two bridges, the Galata Bridge and Atatürk Bridge. The old city, where the majority of historical monuments are found, lies along the Golden Horn. The most famous of these monuments are St.Sophia, Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, The Wall of Theodosius, Topkapi Palace, Suleymaniye Mosque, Underground Cistern, St.Eirene, St.Saviour in Chora, Archeological Museum, Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market. The new part of the city displays a modern impression of Istanbul with its skyscrapers and luxurious shopping centers, but, at the same time, one is reminded of Istanbul's history by the wooden houses bordering the Bosphorus and historical sites such as Dolmabahce Palace, Ciragan Palace, Galata Tower, Nusretiye Mosque, Clock Tower, Yildiz Palace, Rumeli Fortress, etc. The Asiatic side of the city is a mixture of modern houses, lovely wooden villas as well as historical sites such as Anadolu Fortress, Beylerbeyi Palace, Kucuksu Kasri, Hidiv Kasri, Leanders Tower, Cinili Mosque, etc. Within the urban district of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara, there are nine islands, called Princess Islands, where Byzantine Princes used to be exiled. The largest and the most popular one is Buyuk Ada, because the island is larger and there are many things to see and do, such as dining in the fish restaurants, visiting places to worship (mosque, churches, synagogues), fishing, swimming, hiking, donkey riding, cycling, boating, touring the island by horse and carriage, and picnicking. The island is famous for wooden mansions, well kept flower gardens and acres and acres of pine trees. The rest of the popular islands are Kinali Ada, Burgaz Ada, Heybeli Ada, and Sedef Ada.Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul are three names given to the city throughout its history. According to the legend, the legendary founder of the city of Byzantium was Byzas from Megara.Byzas was looking for a new land for his family and his flowers. He asked the Delphic oracle for advice. The oracle advised him not to settle until he found the land of the blind. He told him to build his city just opposite the blind. The oracle was referring to the Chalcedonians, a Greek colony established earlier on the Asiatique side. Byzas set sail. When he was sailing thru the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea at the point of the Bosphorus where three sides were surrounded by water, he decided that the Calcedonians must have been blind not to have chosen this great location. So Byzas built his city on this point in 650 B.C. It was called Byzantium. Byzantium was an independent city with its own government, the favourable location of Byzantium,which controlled the sea routes from the Aegean to the Black Sea.Byzantium was an important center for trade and commercial. The city was taken by Darius 512 B.C. and remained under Persian control from 479 to 444 B.C. after the expulsion of the Spartan General Pausanias.Byzantium later became a voluntary ally of Athens, following two centuries the city frequently changed hands between Athens and Sparta. In the year 179 B.C. the city was captured by the combined forces of Rhodes, Pergamum and Bithynia. In 1710 B.C. Byzantium was captured by the Romans and remained a Roman province until 325 A.D.Constantinople In 324, Byzantium surrendered to Constantine, Emperor of the west. Over the next two years he re-established the Roman Empire with Byzantium as its capital and within four years he had completed his new capital which was five times as large as before. There were three different reasons why the emperor Constantine abandoned Rome as its capital: German intrusions, chaos in economy, chaos in administration. His choice was Byzantium. The name changed to Constantinople, the city of Constantine in November 26th 326 A.D. Emperor Constantine added a lot of important monuments to the city, palace, senate. He enlarged the first Christian house of worship, the Hagia Eirene and founded the Hagia Sophia and a number of churches. He founded two theatres, 160 baths, 50 pillared halls, 8 aqueducts, and 5000 houses. After Constantine's death Rome fell, and Constantinople became the sole capital of the Roman Empire. The Emperor Justinian came to power between (527-565). He was of Spanish descent, He rebuilt St. Sophia which was totally destroyed in the Nika Riot, but Justinian, one of the greatest of East Roman rulers and, as Hadrian had been, a prolific builder, reconstructed the city on a magnificent scale. He was the founder of the largest underground cistern. The rapid growth of Christianity led to the construction of large buildings for worship. His brilliant generals Belisarius and Narses regained most of Italy, Spain and the North African provinces for the empire, though the cost of doing so was to damage irrevocably the economic resilience of the state. Some historians base the switch from Roman Empire to Byzantine during the reign of Justinian. He codified the laws that until that time had existed only in decrees. He recognized the predominance of Greeks among the empire's citizens by making Greek an official language of state along with Latin, and later Greek became the empire's sole official language. Throughout the ensuing centuries Constantinople successfully repulsed many assaults, from Goths, Alans, Serbs, Bulgarians, Russians and seventh-century Arabs. Its defenses held, reinforced by new walls built in the fifth century under Theodosias II. (Standing to the west of the walls that Constantine built, they are the ones that can be seen there today.)In the 12th century, though, the knights and soldiers of the Fourth Crusade attacked and took the city, establishing a Latin Empire and occupying it until 1261 when the Byzantines reoccupied it. They continued in possession, warding off a serious and sustained late 13th-century Ottoman assault by Beyazit I, until Mehmet's assault and victory of 1453.

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