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Istanbul (Turkish spelling: İstanbul); until 1930 Constantinople and in ancient times
Byzantium or Byzantion. With a population of between 11 and 15 million people,
Istanbul is the largest city of Turkey and by some counts one of the largest cities in Europe, despite only 3% of the city's landmass being on the European side of the Bosphorus Strait. The city is also the administrative capital of the Istanbul Province.
Founded by the Roman emperor Constantine on the site of the ancient
Greek colony of Byzantium,
and called Constantinople after him, it became the eastern capital of
the Roman Empire and later the capital of the Byzantine Empire. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 it became part of and soon
capital of the Ottoman Empire. Only on March 28, 1930, was the city officially renamed Istanbul.
The old city is mainly located on the Bosporus strait, which separates Europe from
Asia and the Black Sea from the Marmara Sea. However, the modern city is much larger and covers both European and
Asian sides of the Bosporus. Famous tourist destinations include Sariyer, Eyüp and Taksim on the European side, and Beykoz,
Üsküdar, Kadiköy, Moda, Bostanci and Adalar (the Prince's Islands) on the Asian side. Although Istanbul is no longer the capital
of Turkey, it is still arguably the most important city to Turkish industry, commerce and culture and the most important import
and export center.
There are two mainstream hypothesis about the etymology of the name Istanbul: the first states that the name
Istanbul comes from the Greek words eis tin Poli meaning "at the City" (the City/Polis being
Constantinoupolis), while the second suggests that the name is merely a Turkish contraction of
Constantinoupolis. The sound rendered by "i" is prepended by the virtue of the
language. Many Turkic languages forbid certain combinations of
consonants at the beginning of the word, hence certain borrowed words acquire a vowel chosen according to the rule of vowel harmony. In this way Smyrna became Izmir and Nicaea became Iznik, just
as "machine" became "amashina" in e.g., Abkhaz language. The
intermediate form Stamboul was commonly used in the 19th century.
History
(For early history, see Byzantium and Constantinople.)
Places to visit
Education
- Bahcesehir
University
- Istanbul Technical University
- Istanbul University
- Koc University
- Sabanci University
- Yildiz Technical University
Airports
See Also
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