"Merhaba" a Istanbul Travel Page by seagoingJLW

Istanbul straddles two continents Almost three millennia of history explain the densely historic landscape of Ottoman mosques, Byzantine mosaics and Roman masonry.

History

Byzas, a Greek speculator looking for prime real estate consulted the Oracle at Delphi in the 7th century BCE. He was told to settle "opposite the Land of the Blind." The city was first named Byzantium in his honor.

Late in the second century AD, Rome conquered the small city/state of Byzantium and in 330 AD Emperor Constantine moved his capital there from Rome and renamed it Constantinople.

While western Europe collapsed before invasions of Goths, Vandals and Huns, Constantinople didn't fall until the misguided Fourth Crusade. when Crusaders abandoned the dreams of Jerusalem and ravaged Constantinople in 1204.

The Byzantines regained the city in 1261 Then the Ottoman Turks laid siege in 1314, but withdrew. Finally, in 1453, the walls were breached just north of Topkapi Gate. Mahmet II marched to Hagia Sofia, converted the church to a mosque and the Byzantine Empire ended.

During the glittering reign of Suleyman the Magnificent (1520-66) the city buiilt many new graceful buildings.

Istanbul was occupied by Allied Forces after World War I. Then Ataturk's armies shaped a new republican state. The Turkish Republic was proclaimed in 1923.

Song Lyrics

Istanbul

Istanbul was Constantinople
Not it's Istanbul not Constantinople
Been a long time gone old Constantinople
Still it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night.
Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul not Constantinople.
So if you've a date in Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul.
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say.
People just liked it better that way.
Take me back to Coinstantinople
No you can't go back to Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul not Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks.