Istanbul

Turkey’s largest city, spanning the Bosporus between Europe and Asia. It occupies the site of historic Constantinople and served as the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.

Byzantium: An ancient Greek city founded on the Bosporus, later refounded as Constantinople. The settlement that preceded Constantinople and gave Istanbul its earliest enduring urban identity.
Bosporus: A narrow strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, dividing Europe from Asia. The strait cuts through the city and anchors its position between two continents.
Istanbul Airport: An international airport serving Istanbul, opened in 2018 on the city’s European side. It connects the metropolis to global air routes and replaced Atatürk Airport for most commercial flights.
Hagia Sophia: A monumental building in Istanbul completed as a Byzantine cathedral in 537 CE and later used as a mosque and museum. Its changing religious and civic roles mirror the city’s shifts in power.
Istanbul pogrom: A campaign of mob violence against Istanbul’s Greek community on 6–7 September 1955. It accelerated the decline of the city’s long-established Greek population.
Constantinople: The city founded by Constantine I in 330 CE as the capital of the Roman Empire. Istanbul’s predecessor name marks its centuries as a Byzantine and Ottoman imperial capital.
Golden Horn: A horn-shaped inlet of the Bosporus that forms a sheltered natural harbor. Its harbor helped make historic Istanbul a major center of shipping and defense.
Marmaray: A rail tunnel beneath the Bosporus linking Istanbul’s European and Asian railway networks. It turns the strait from a barrier into a continuous urban rail crossing.
Topkapı Palace: A palace complex in Istanbul that served as the Ottoman sultans’ principal residence and administrative center. It preserves the setting from which Ottoman rulers governed their empire.
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey: The compulsory exchange of Greek Orthodox and Muslim populations agreed by Greece and Turkey in 1923. Its exemptions left Istanbul’s Greek community outside the exchange but vulnerable to later displacement.

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