Travel Guides

Istanbul, former Constantinopole, Tsarigrad has a lot of attractions and attractive corners for his visitors.

This city is a holly city of Islam, and I noticed for you the following most attractive spots:

1. Topkapi Palace, where you can find the personal belonging of Mohammed and the first caliphs. A huge museum with many craft and art masterpieces and a special wing for the harem! In his peak years, Topkapi was a city in the city indeed, hosting 5000 people.

2. Hagia Sofia, or Aya Sofia for the Istanbulites, was first a church, than a mosque and now is a very interesting museum. It is huge, but nevertheless harmonic, and has been for a millennium world’s biggest cathedral.

3.Blue Mosque, also named the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, has wonderful blue tiles

Istanbul is a megacity like no other, an unique megacity: it lies on two continents.

It is Europe’s most poulous city, and is ranked worldwide on the 3rd place, with its 12 000 000 inhabitants. The european side is named Thrace, and the asian Anatolia. 30 % of the population lives on the asian side, which is newer and has a better infrastructure.

Istanbul has a long, glorious, turbulent history. It was founded by the roman emperor Constantin, with the intention to become the capital of the Roman Empire. That is why it was long time called Constantinopole, and was really the capital of the Roman Eastern Empire. In 1432 it was conquered by the osman turks, becoming the capital of the Othoman Empire. When proclaming Republic of Turkey in 1922, Mustafa kemal Ataturk moved the capital to Ankara, but Istanbul continued to florish up today! In the last 50 years it tripled its population.