The city has about eight thousand history. Proper established city goes 8th centuries BC. Founded as a ancient Greek colony of Byzantium and become one of the important trade city. Great Roman Emperor Constantine the Great settled as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire in 335 AD. Nearly thousand years it was the capital of the empire and they created new culture between Greek and Roman and again between pagan and Christian. Many important monumental buildings were build as master pieces of Roman architectural style. The city finally conquered by the Ottoman, Sultan Mehmed II on May 29th, 1453, an event often used to mark the end of the Middle Ages. It becomes the capital of the Ottoman Empire which was ruling three continents. And in Ottoman era city become the major cultural, political, and commercial center all around the world. During the Ottoman Empire the city was designed by the Turkish and oriental art and many mosques, hans, bazaars etc. were build in all around city.
After World War I, Ottoman Empire collapsed and Republic of Turkey established in 1923. Founder of Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moved its capital to Ankara. However Istanbul is well known city in Turkey with its history and beauty.
The city has mainly three parts; Asian side which is mostly residential area, modern side of Europe and historical side in Europe where there are most important historical sites. |
Recent construction of the Marmaray tunnel unearthed a Neolithic settlement underneath Yenikapı on Istanbul's peninsula. Dating back to the 7th millennium BC, before the Bosphorus was even formed, the discovery indicated that the peninsula was settled thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Thracian tribes established two settlements on the Seraglio Point, near where Topkapı Palace now stands, between the 13th and 11th centuries BC. On the Asian side, artifacts have been found in Fikirtepe (present-day Kadıköy) that date back to the Chalcolithic period. The same location was the site of a Phoenician trading post at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC as well as the town of Chalcedon... |