1.
Turkish language
–
Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
2.
Golden Horn
–
The Golden Horn, also known by its modern Turkish name as Haliç, is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. Its Greek and English names mean the same, while its Turkish name, Haliç, simply means estuary, throughout its storied past, the Golden Horn has witnessed many tumultuous historical incidents, and its dramatic vistas have been the subject of countless works of art. The Golden Horn is the estuary of the Alibeyköy and Kağıthane Rivers and it is 7.5 kilometers long, and 750 meters across at its widest. Its maximum depth, where it flows into the Bosphorus, is about 35 meters, at present, the Golden Horn is spanned by five bridges. Moving from upstream to downstream, these are as follows, The first crossing is the Haliç Bridge, completed in 1974, which connects the neighborhoods of Sütlüce and Defterdar. Originally dating back to 1912, the structure is no longer used for vehicular or pedestrian traffic. The third is the Atatürk Bridge, aka Unkapanı Bridge, completed in 1940, the fourth is the Golden Horn Metro Bridge — a pedestrianized railway crossing, completed in 2014, that extends subway line M2 of the Istanbul Metro across the Golden Horn. The fifth bridge is the fifth and most current incarnation of Galata Bridge, completed in 1994, the Byzantine Empire had its naval headquarters there, and walls were built along the shoreline to protect the city of Constantinople from naval attacks. At the entrance to the Horn on the side, a large chain was pulled across from Constantinople to the old Tower of Galata to prevent unwanted ships from entering. Known among the Byzantines as the Megàlos Pyrgos, this tower was destroyed by the Latin Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. In 1348, the Genoese built a new tower nearby which they called Christea Turris, there were three notable times when the chain across the Horn was either broken or circumvented. In the 10th century the Kievan Rus dragged their longships out of the Bosphorus, around Galata, and relaunched them in the Horn, in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, Venetian ships were able to break the chain with a ram. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II resettled ethnic Greeks along the Horn in the Phanar, Balat continued to be inhabited by Jews, as during the Byzantine age, though many Jews decided to leave following the takeover of the city. This area was repopulated when Bayezid II invited the Jews who were expelled from Spain to resettle in Balat, in 1502, Leonardo da Vinci produced a drawing of a single-span 240-metre bridge over the Golden Horn as part of a civil engineering project for Sultan Bayezid II. Leonardos drawings and notes regarding this bridge are displayed at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia in Milan. Until the 1980s, the Horn was polluted with waste from the factories, warehouses. It has since been cleaned, and the fish, wildlife. Nowadays, the Golden Horn is settled on both sides, and there are parks along each shore, the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce is also located along the shore, as are several Muslim, Jewish and Christian cemeteries
3.
Sea of Marmara
–
The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black Sea and the Dardanelles strait to the Aegean Sea. The former also separates Istanbul into its Asian and European sides, the sea has an area of 11,350 km² with the greatest depth reaching 1,370 m. The sea takes its name from the island of Marmara, which is rich in sources of marble, from the Greek μάρμαρον, marble. The seas ancient Greek name Propontis derives from pro- and pontos, deriving from the fact that the Greeks sailed through it to reach the Black Sea, Pontos. The surface salinity of the sea averages about 22 parts per thousand, which is greater than that of the Black Sea. The water is more saline at the sea bottom, averaging salinities of around 38 parts per thousand. This high-density saline water, like that of the Black Sea, water from the Susurluk, Biga and Gonen Rivers also reduces the salinity of the sea, though with less influence than on the Black Sea. With little land in Thrace draining southward, almost all of these rivers flow from Anatolia, the sea contains the archipelago of the Prince Islands and Marmara Island, Avşa and Paşalimanı. The south coast of the sea is heavily indented, and includes the Gulf of İzmit, the Gulf of Gemlik Gulf of Bandırma and the Gulf of Erdek. During a storm on December 29,1999, the Russian oil tanker Volgoneft broke in two in the Sea of Marmara, and more than 1,500 tonnes of oil were spilled into the water. The North Anatolian Fault, which has triggered many major earthquakes in recent years, such as the August and November 1999 earthquakes in Izmit and Düzce, respectively, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Sea of Marmara as follows, On the West. The Dardanelles limit of the Aegean Sea, a line joining Cape Rumili with Cape Anatoli
4.
Istanbul
–
Istanbul, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the countrys economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is a city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosphorus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side, the city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents. Istanbul is one of the worlds most populous cities and ranks as the worlds 7th-largest city proper, founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE, the city developed to become one of the most significant in history. After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE, it served as a capital for almost 16 centuries, during the Roman and Byzantine, the Latin. Overlooked for the new capital Ankara during the period, the city has since regained much of its prominence. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in, arts, music, film, and cultural festivals were established at the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today. Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network, considered a global city, Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world. It hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the gross domestic product. Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion, Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years, the first known name of the city is Byzantium, the name given to it at its foundation by Megarean colonists around 660 BCE. The name is thought to be derived from a personal name, ancient Greek tradition refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Greek colonists. Modern scholars have hypothesized that the name of Byzas was of local Thracian or Illyrian origin. He also attempted to promote the name Nova Roma and its Greek version Νέα Ῥώμη Nea Romē, the use of Constantinople to refer to the city during the Ottoman period is now considered politically incorrect, even if not historically inaccurate, by Turks. By the 19th century, the city had acquired other names used by foreigners or Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu. The name İstanbul is commonly held to derive from the Medieval Greek phrase εἰς τὴν Πόλιν and this reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was reflected by its Ottoman name Der Saadet meaning the gate to Prosperity in Ottoman. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from the name Constantinople, with the first, a Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol plenty of Islam because the city was called Islambol or Islambul as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire
5.
UNESCO
–
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005
6.
World Heritage List
–
A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
7.
History of Istanbul
–
The city today known as Istanbul has been the site of human settlement for approximately three thousand years. The settlement was founded by Thracian tribes between the 13th and 11th centuries BC, whose earliest known name is Lygos and it was colonised by the Greeks in the 7th century BC. It fell to the Roman Republic in AD196, and was known as Byzantium until 330, during late antiquity, the city rose to be the largest of the western world, with a population peaking at close to half a million people. Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which ended with the Muslim conquest in 1453, Constantinople then became the capital of the Ottoman Empire. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved from Constantinople to Ankara, since 1930, the native name Istanbul has been the sole official name of the city in Turkish and has since replaced the traditional name Constantinople in most western languages as well. Humans have lived in the now known as Istanbul since at least the Neolithic. The first human settlement on the Anatolian side, the Fikirtepe mound, is from the Copper Age period, in nearby Kadıköy a port settlement dating back to the Phoenicians has been discovered. The first name of the city was Lygos according to Pliny the Elder in his historical accounts, Lygos and Semistra were the only settlements on the European side of Istanbul. On the Asian side there was a Phoenician colony, on the site of Lygos, the later Byzantium was located, thus Lygos is accepted as the city which gave rise to Istanbul. Byzantion, Latinized as Byzantium, was the name of the city. The name is believed to be of Thracian or Illyrian origin and it may be derived from a Thracian or Illyrian personal name, Byzas. Ancient Greek legend refers to a legendary king Bizas as the leader of the Megarean colonists, Byzantion was established on the site of an ancient port settlement named Lygos During the period of Byzantion, the Acropolis used to stand where the Topkapı Palace stands today. After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus the city was besieged by Rome, Byzantium was rebuilt by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and quickly regained its previous prosperity, being temporarily renamed as Augusta Antonina by the emperor, in honor of his son. Byzantium was officially proclaimed the new capital of the Roman Empire in 330, following the death of Theodosius I in 395 and the permanent partition of the Roman Empire between his two sons, Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. It was the center of the Greek world and for most of the Byzantine period, after the end of his reign in 337, Constantine declared his three sons as joint heirs of the Roman Empire in a system of co-emperorship. Unfortunately, the sons couldn’t govern together peacefully and their war raged rivalry split the empire on the line along the Balkan Peninsula. The territory was split in 395 when Theodosius I died leaving his son Arcadius emperor of the eastern half of the empire. According to historians this flourishing Eastern Roman Empire was then classified as the Byzantine Empire to distinguish it from the Roman Empire, the seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, remains
8.
Sultan Ahmed Mosque
–
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque or Sultan Ahmet Mosque is a historic mosque located in Istanbul, Turkey. A popular tourist site, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque continues to function as a mosque today, the Blue Mosque, as it is popularly known, was constructed between 1609 and 1616 during the rule of Ahmed I. Its Külliye contains Ahmeds tomb, a madrasah and a hospice, hand-painted blue tiles adorn the mosque’s interior walls, and at night the mosque is bathed in blue as lights frame the mosque’s five main domes, six minarets and eight secondary domes. It sits next to the Hagia Sophia, another popular tourist site, after the Peace of Zsitvatorok and the crushing loss in the 1603–1618 war with Persia, Sultan Ahmet I, decided to build a large mosque in Istanbul to reassert Ottoman power. It would be the first imperial mosque for more than forty years, while his predecessors had paid for their mosques with the spoils of war, Ahmet I procured funds from the Treasury, because he had not gained remarkable victories. It caused the anger of the ulema, the Muslim jurists, big parts of the south shore of the mosque rest on the foundations, the vaults of the old Grand Palace. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque has five domes, six minarets. The design is the culmination of two centuries of Ottoman mosque development and it incorporates some Byzantine Christian elements of the neighboring Hagia Sophia with traditional Islamic architecture and is considered to be the last great mosque of the classical period. The architect, Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, synthesized the ideas of his master Sinan, aiming for overwhelming size, majesty and splendour. At its lower levels and at every pier, the interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade İznik style ceramic tiles, made at Iznik in more than fifty different tulip designs. The tiles at lower levels are traditional in design, while at gallery level their design becomes flamboyant with representations of flowers, fruit, the tiles were made under the supervision of the Iznik master. The price to be paid for each tile was fixed by the sultans decree, as a result, the quality of the tiles used in the building decreased gradually. The upper levels of the interior are dominated by blue paint, more than 200 stained glass windows with intricate designs admit natural light, today assisted by chandeliers. On the chandeliers, ostrich eggs are found that were meant to avoid cobwebs inside the mosque by repelling spiders, the decorations include verses from the Quran, many of them made by Seyyid Kasim Gubari, regarded as the greatest calligrapher of his time. The floors are covered with carpets, which are donated by the faithful and are replaced as they wear out. The many spacious windows confer a spacious impression, the casements at floor level are decorated with opus sectile. Each exedra has five windows, some of which are blind, each semi-dome has 14 windows and the central dome 28. The coloured glass for the windows was a gift of the Signoria of Venice to the sultan, most of these coloured windows have by now been replaced by modern versions with little or no artistic merit
9.
Hagia Sophia
–
Hagia Sophia was a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica, later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. The building was converted into an Ottoman mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935, famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have changed the history of architecture. It remained the worlds largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years and it was designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. The church contained a collection of relics and featured, among other things. In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed the Conqueror, by that point, the church had fallen into a state of disrepair. Nevertheless, the Christian cathedral made an impression on the new Ottoman rulers. Islamic features—such as the mihrab, minbar, and four minarets—were added and it remained a mosque until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey, Hagia Sophia was, as of 2014, the second-most visited museum in Turkey, attracting almost 3.3 million visitors annually. According to data released by the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry, from its initial conversion until the construction of the nearby Sultan Ahmed Mosque in 1616, it was the principal mosque of Istanbul. The first church on the site was known as the Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία, or in Latin Magna Ecclesia, inaugurated on 15 February 360 by the Arian bishop Eudoxius of Antioch, it was built next to the area where the imperial palace was being developed. The nearby Hagia Eirene church was completed earlier and served as cathedral until the Great Church was completed, both churches acted together as the principal churches of the Byzantine Empire. Writing in 440, Socrates of Constantinople claimed that the church was built by Constantius II, a tradition which is not older than the 7th or 8th century, reports that the edifice was built by Constantine the Great. Zonaras reconciles the two opinions, writing that Constantius had repaired the edifice consecrated by Eusebius of Nicomedia, after it had collapsed. Since Eusebius was bishop of Constantinople from 339 to 341, and Constantine died in 337, the edifice was built as a traditional Latin colonnaded basilica with galleries and a wooden roof. It was preceded by an atrium and it was claimed to be one of the worlds most outstanding monuments at the time. The Patriarch of Constantinople John Chrysostom came into a conflict with Empress Aelia Eudoxia, wife of the emperor Arcadius, during the subsequent riots, this first church was largely burned down. Nothing remains of the first church today, a second church on the site was ordered by Theodosius II, who inaugurated it on 10 October 415
10.
Walls of Constantinople
–
With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, as the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Ultimately the city fell from sheer weight of numbers of the Ottoman forces on 29 May 1453 after a six-week siege. The walls were largely maintained intact during most of the Ottoman period, until sections began to be dismantled in the 19th century, despite the subsequent lack of maintenance, many parts of the walls survived and are still standing today. A large-scale restoration program has been under way since the 1980s, according to tradition, the city was founded as Byzantium by Greek colonists from Megara, led by the eponymous Byzas, around 658 BC. At the time the city consisted of a region around an acropolis. This wall was protected by 27 towers, and had at least two gates, one which survived to become known as the Arch of Urbicius. On the seaward side, the wall was much lower and this wall is known to have been repaired, utilising tomb stones, under the leadership of a certain Leo in 340 BC, against an attack by Philip II of Macedon. Byzantium was relatively unimportant during the early Roman period, contemporaries described it as wealthy, well peopled and well fortified, but this affluence came to an end due to its support for Pescennius Niger in his war against Septimius Severus. Severus punished the city harshly, the walls were demolished. The Patria also mention the existence of another wall during the siege of Byzantium by Constantine the Great during the conflict with Licinius. Like Severus before him, Constantine began to punish the city for siding with his defeated rival, during 324–336 the city was thoroughly rebuilt and inaugurated on 11 May 330 under the name of Second Rome. The name that prevailed in common usage however was Constantinople. The city of Constantine was protected by a new wall about 2.8 km west of the Severan wall, constantines fortification consisted of a single wall, reinforced with towers at regular distances, which began to be constructed in 324 and was completed under his son Constantius II. Only the approximate course of the wall is known, it began at the Church of St. Aemilianus, already by the early 5th century however, Constantinople had expanded outside the Constantinian Wall, in the extramural area known as the Exokionion or Exakionion. The wall survived during much of the Byzantine period, even though it was replaced by the Theodosian Walls as the primary defence. Only traces of the wall appear to have survived in later ages, the recent construction of Yenikapı Transfer Center has unearthed a section of the foundation of the wall of Constantine. The names of a number of gates of the Constantinian Wall survive, the gate stood somewhere on the southern slopes of the Seventh Hill
11.
Galata Tower
–
One of the citys most striking landmarks, it is a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline and offers a panoramic vista of Istanbuls historic peninsula and its environs. The nine-story tower is 66.90 m, and was the citys tallest structure when it was built, the elevation at ground level is 35 m above sea-level. The tower has an diameter of 16.45 m at the base, an inside diameter of 8.95 m. There is a restaurant and café on its upper floors which command a magnificent view of Istanbul, also located on the upper floors is a night club which hosts a Turkish show. There are two operating elevators that carry visitors from the level to the upper levels. The Romanesque style tower was built as Christea Turris in 1348 during an expansion of the Genoese colony in Constantinople, Galata Tower was the tallest building in Istanbul at 219.5 ft when it was built in 1348. That tower was on a different site and was destroyed in 1203. The upper section of the tower with the cap was slightly modified in several restorations during the Ottoman period when it was used as an observation tower for spotting fires. Evliyâ Çelebi also tells of Hezarfens brother, Lagari Hasan Çelebi, starting from 1717, the Ottomans began to use the tower for spotting fires in the city. In 1794, during the reign of Sultan Selim III, the roof of the tower was made of lead and wood, another fire damaged the building in 1831, upon which a new restoration work took place. In 1875, during a storm, the roof on the top of the building was destroyed. The tower remained without this conical roof for the rest of the Ottoman period, many years later, during the restoration works between 1965 and 1967, the conical roof was reconstructed. During this final restoration in the 1960s, the interior of the tower was replaced by a concrete structure. From the top of the tower, the first French panorama painter, Pierre Prévost, drew his Panorama de Constantinople in 1818, which was later exhibited in Paris in 1825. The panorama image shown below is composed of ten photos taken from the Galata Tower by the firm of Sébah & Joaillier. Old Galata Tower Genoese colonies List of towers Romanesque architecture List of Romanesque buildings
12.
Neolithic
–
It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
13.
Thracians
–
The Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family, the study of Thracians and Thracian culture is known as Thracology. Thracians are one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians. The first historical record about the Thracians is found in the Iliad, the ethnonym Thracian comes from Ancient Greek Θρᾷξ or Θρᾴκιος/Ionic, Θρηίκιος, and the toponym Thrace comes from Θρᾴκη/Ion. These forms are all exonyms as applied by the Greeks, in Greek mythology, Thrax was regarded as one of the reputed sons of the god Ares. In the Alcestis, Euripides mentions that one of the names of Ares himself was Thrax since he was regarded as the patron of Thrace, the origins of the Thracians remain obscure, in the absence of written historical records. Evidence of proto-Thracians in the period depends on artifacts of material culture. Leo Klejn identifies proto-Thracians with the multi-cordoned ware culture that was pushed away from Ukraine by the advancing timber grave culture and we speak of proto-Thracians from which during the Iron Age Dacians and Thracians begin developing. Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not manage to form a political organization until the Odrysian state was founded in the fifth century BC. A strong Dacian state appeared in the first century BC, during the reign of King Burebista, including the Illyrians, the mountainous regions were home to various peoples regarded as warlike and ferocious Thracian tribes, while the plains peoples were apparently regarded as more peaceable. Thracians inhabited parts of the ancient provinces of Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia, Dacia, Scythia Minor, Sarmatia, Bithynia, Mysia, Pannonia, and other regions of the Balkans and Anatolia. This area extended over most of the Balkans region, and the Getae north of the Danube as far as beyond the Bug and including Panonia in the west. Aligning themselves in kingdoms and tribes, they never displayed any form of unity beyond short. Similar to the Celtic and Slavic tribes, most people are thought to have lived simply in small fortified villages, although the concept of an urban center was not developed until the Roman period, various larger fortifications which also served as regional market centers were numerous. Yet, in general, despite Greek colonization in such areas as Byzantium, Apollonia and other cities, the first Greek colonies in Thrace were founded in the eighth century BC. Thrace south of the Danube was ruled for half a century by the Persians under Darius the Great. In the first decade of the sixth century BC, the Persians invaded Thrace, Thracians were forced to join the invasions of European Scythia and Greece. According to Herodotus, the Bithynian Thracians also had to contribute a large contingent to Xerxes invasion of Greece in 480 BC, Darius left in Europe one of his commanders named Megabazus whose task was to accomplish conquests in the Balkans
14.
Pliny the Elder
–
In the latter number will be my uncle, by virtue of his own and of your compositions. Pliny is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncles now missing work on the History of the German Wars. The wind caused by the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the eruption would not allow his ship to leave the shore, and Pliny probably died during this event. Plinys dates are pinned to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 and a statement of his nephew that he died in his 56th year, Pliny was the son of an equestrian, Gaius Plinius Celer, and his wife, Marcella. Neither the younger nor the elder Pliny mention the names and their ultimate source is a fragmentary inscription found in a field in Verona and recorded by the 16th century Augustinian monk Onofrio Panvinio at Verona. The reading of the inscription depends on the reconstruction, but in all cases the names come through, whether he was an augur and whether she was named Grania Marcella are less certain. Jean Hardouin presents a statement from a source that he claims was ancient, that Pliny was from Verona. Hardouin also cites the conterraneity of Catullus, additional efforts to connect Celer and Marcella with other gentes are highly speculative. Hardouin is the scholar to use his unknown source. He kept statues of his ancestors there, a statue of Pliny on the facade of the Duomo of Como celebrates him as a native son. He had a sister, Plinia, who married into the Caecilii and was the mother of his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whose letters describe his work and study regimen in detail. In one of his letters to Tacitus, Pliny the Younger details how his uncles breakfasts would be light and simple following the customs of our forefathers. This shows that Pliny the Younger wanted it to be conveyed that Pliny the Elder was a good Roman and this statement would have pleased Tacitus. Two inscriptions identifying the hometown of Pliny the Younger as Como take precedence over the Verona theory, one commemorates the youngers career as imperial magistrate and details his considerable charitable and municipal expenses on behalf of the people of Como. Another identifies his father Lucius village as Fecchio near Como and it is likely therefore that Plinia was a local girl and Pliny the Elder, her brother, was from Como. Gaius was a member of the Plinii gens and he did not take his fathers cognomen, Celer, but assumed his own, Secundus. As his adopted son took the same cognomen, Pliny founded a branch, no earlier instances of the Plinii are known. In 59 BC, only about 82 years before Plinys birth, Julius Caesar founded Novum Comum as a colonia to secure the region against the Alpine tribes, whom he had been unable to defeat
15.
Byzantium
–
Byzantium was an ancient Greek colony that later became Constantinople, and later still Istanbul. Byzantium was colonised by the Greeks from Megara in c. 657 BC, the etymology of Byzantion is unknown. It has been suggested that the name is of Thraco-Illyrian origin and it may be derived from a Thracian or Illyrian personal name, Byzas. Ancient Greek legend refers to a king Byzas, the leader of the Megarian colonists, the form Byzantium is a Latinisation of the original name. Much later, the name Byzantium became common in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire and this usage was introduced only in 1555 by the historian Hieronymus Wolf, a century after the empire had ceased to exist. During the time of the empire, the term Byzantium was restricted to just the city, the European side featured only two fishing settlements, Lygos and Semistra. The origins of Byzantium are shrouded in legend, the traditional legend has it that Byzas from Megara founded Byzantium in 667 BC when he sailed northeast across the Aegean Sea. The tradition tells that Byzas, son of King Nisos, planned to found a colony of the Dorian Greek city of Megara, Byzas consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, which instructed Byzas to settle opposite the Land of the Blind. Leading a group of Megarian colonists, Byzas found a location where the Golden Horn and he adjudged the Chalcedonians blind not to have recognized the advantages the land on the European side of the Bosphorus had over the Asiatic side. In 667 BC he founded Byzantium at their location, thus fulfilling the oracles requirement and it was mainly a trading city due to its location at the Black Seas only entrance. Byzantium later conquered Chalcedon, across the Bosporus on the Asiatic side, Byzantium was besieged by Greek forces during the Peloponnesian War. As part of Spartas strategy for cutting off supplies to Athens. The Athenian military later took the city in 408 BC, after siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus, the city was besieged by Roman forces and suffered extensive damage in 196 AD. Byzantium was rebuilt by Septimius Severus, now emperor, and quickly regained its previous prosperity and it was bound to Perinthos during the period of Septimius Severus. The location of Byzantium attracted Roman Emperor Constantine I who, in 330 AD, after his death the city was called Constantinople. This combination of imperialism and location would affect Constantinoples role as the nexus between the continents of Europe and Asia and it was a commercial, cultural, and diplomatic centre. With its strategic position, Constantinople controlled the trade routes between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea. On May 29,1453, the city fell to the Ottoman Turks, and again became the capital of a powerful state, the Turks called the city Istanbul, the name derives from eis-tin-polin
16.
Acropolis
–
An acropolis is a settlement, especially a citadel, built upon an area of elevated ground—frequently a hill with precipitous sides, chosen for purposes of defense. An example in Ireland is the Rock of Cashel, Acropolis is also the term used by archaeologists and historians for the urban Castro culture settlements located in Northwestern Iberian hilltops. The most famous example is the Acropolis of Athens, which, by reason of its historical associations, although originating in the mainland of Greece, use of the acropolis model quickly spread to Greek colonies such as the Dorian Lato on Crete during the Archaic Period. Because of its classical Hellenistic style, the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistranos Great Stone Church in California, other parts of the world developed other names for the high citadel or alcázar, which often reinforced a naturally strong site. In Central Italy, many small rural communes still cluster at the base of a fortified habitation known as La Rocca of the commune. The term acropolis is also used to describe the complex of overlapping structures, such as plazas and pyramids, in many Maya cities, including Tikal
17.
Ancient Greece
–
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
18.
Megara
–
Megara is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four sons of King Pandion II. Megara was also a port, its people using their ships. Megara specialized in the exportation of wool and other products including livestock such as horses. It possessed two harbors, Pegae, to the west on the Corinthian Gulf and Nisaea, to the east on the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. In historical times, Megara was a dependency of Corinth, in which capacity colonists from Megara founded Megara Hyblaea. Megara then fought a war of independence with Corinth, and afterwards founded Chalcedon in 685 BC, Megara is known to have early ties with Miletos, in the region of Caria in Asia Minor. According to some scholars, they had built up a “colonisation alliance”, in the 7th/6th century BCE these two cities acted in concordance with each other. Both cities acted under the leadership and sanction of an Apollo oracle, Megara cooperated with that of Delphi. Miletos had her own oracle of Apollo Didymeus Milesios in Didyma, also, there are many parallels in the political organisation of both cities. In the late 7th century BC Theagenes established himself as tyrant of Megara by slaughtering the cattle of the rich to win over the poor, during the second Persian invasion of Greece Megara fought alongside the Spartans and Athenians at crucial battles such as Salamis and Plataea. Megaras defection from the Spartan-dominated Peloponnesian League became one of the causes of the First Peloponnesian War, by the terms of the Thirty Years Peace of 446-445 BC Megara was returned to the Peloponnesian League. In the Peloponnesian War, Megara was an ally of Sparta, the Megarian decree is considered to be one of several contributing causes of the Peloponnesian War. Athens issued the Megarian decree with the aim of choking out the Megarian economy, the decree banned Megarian merchants from territory controlled by Athens. The Athenians claimed that they were responding to the Megarians desecration of the Hiera Orgas, arguably the most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity was Byzas, the legendary founder of Byzantium in the 7th century BC. The 6th-century BC poet Theognis also came from Megara, in the early 4th century BC, Euclid of Megara founded the Megarian school of philosophy which flourished for about a century, and which became famous for the use of logic and dialectic. In 243 BC Megara expelled its Macedonian garrison and joined the Achaean League, the Megarians were proverbial for their generosity in building and endowing temples
19.
Chalcedon
–
Chalcedon was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. It was located almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari, the name Chalcedon is a variant of Calchedon, found on all the coins of the town as well as in manuscripts of Herodotuss Histories, Xenophons Hellenica, Arrians Anabasis, and other works. The site of Chalcedon is located on a peninsula on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara. A stream, called the Chalcis or Chalcedon in antiquity and now known as the Kurbağalıdere, there Greek colonists from Megara in Attica founded the settlement of Chalcedon in 685 BC, some seventeen years before Byzantium. The Greek name of the ancient town is from the Greek name of the ancient Phoenician city of Carthage, the mineral Chalcedony is named for where it came from outside Chalcedon. The mound of Fikirtepe has yielded remains dating to the Chalcolithic period, phoenicians were active traders in this area. Chalcedon originated as a Megarian colony in 685 BCE, nevertheless, trade thrived in Chalcedon, the town flourished and built many temples, including one to Apollo, which had an oracle. Important villages in Chalcedonia included Chrysopolis and Panteicheion, strabo notes that a little above the sea in Chalcedonia lies the fountain Azaritia, which contains small crocodiles. In its early history Chalcedon shared the fortunes of Byzantium, later, the 6th-century BCE Persian satrap Otanes captured it. The city vacillated for a long while between the Lacedaemonian and the Athenian interests, darius the Greats bridge of boats, built in 512 BC for his Scythian campaign, extended from Chalcedonia to Thrace. Chalcedon formed a part of the kingdom of Bithynia, whose king Nicomedes willed Bithynia to the Romans upon his death in 74 BCE, the city was partly destroyed by Mithridates. The governor of Bithynia, Cotta, had fled to Chalcedon for safety along with thousands of other Romans, three thousand of them were killed, sixty ships captured, and four ships destroyed in Mithridates assault on the city. During the Empire, Chalcedon recovered, and was given the status of a free city, Chalcedon suffered somewhat from its proximity to the new imperial capital at Constantinople. First the Byzantines and later the Ottoman Turks used it as a quarry for building materials for Constantinoples monumental structures, Chalcedon also fell repeatedly to armies attacking Constantinople from the east. In 361 AD it was the location of the Chalcedon tribunal, in 451 AD an ecumenical council of Christian leaders convened here. See below for this Council of Chalcedon, the general Belisarius probably spent his years of retirement on his estate of Rufinianae in Chalcedonia. Beginning in 616 and for at least a decade thereafter, Chalcedon furnished an encampment to the Persians under Chosroes II and it later fell for a time to the Arabs under Yazid. Chalcedon was badly damaged during the Fourth Crusade and it came definitively under Ottoman rule under Orhan Gazi a century before the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople
20.
Anatolia
–
Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
21.
Bosphorus
–
The Bosphorus or Bosporus is a narrow, natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in northwestern Turkey. It forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia, and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey. The worlds narrowest strait used for navigation, the Bosphorus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and, by extension via the Dardanelles. Most of the shores of the strait are heavily settled, straddled by the city of Istanbuls metropolitan population of 17 million inhabitants extending inland from both coasts, together with the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus forms the Turkish Straits. This folk etymology was canonized by Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound, where Prometheus prophesies to Io that the strait would be named after her, the site where Io supposedly went ashore was near Chrysopolis, and was named Bous the Cow. The same site was known as Damalis, as it was where the Athenian general Chares had erected a monument to his wife Damalis. Historically, the Bosphorus was also known as the Strait of Constantinople, or the Thracian Bosphorus and these are expressed in Herodotus Histories,4.83, as Bosporus Thracius, Bosporus Thraciae, and Βόσπορος Θρᾴκιος, respectively. Other names by which the strait is referenced by Herodotus include Chalcedonian Bosporus, the term eventually came to be used as common noun βόσπορος, meaning a strait, and was also formerly applied to the Hellespont in Classical Greek by Aeschylus and Sophocles. Presently, the waterway is officially referred to as simply Bosphorus, the Marmara further connects to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas via the Dardanelles. A common mistake made by those who are unfamiliar with the locale is to assume the Bosphorus is a river, when it is, in fact. The exact scientific cause and date of the formation of the Bosphorus remain the subject of debate among geologists, many geologists, however, claim that the strait is much older, even if relatively young on a geologic timescale. The Symplegades were defeated when the lyrical hero Jason obtained successful passage, whereupon the rocks became fixed, between these limits, the strait is 31 km long, with a width of 3,329 m at the northern entrance and 2,826 m at the southern entrance. Its maximum width is 3,420 m between Umuryeri and Büyükdere Limanı, and minimum width 700 m between Kandilli Point and Aşiyan, the depth of the Bosphorus varies from 13 to 110 m in midstream with an average of 65 m. The deepest location is between Kandilli and Bebek with 110 m, the most shallow locations are off Kadıköy İnciburnu on the northward route with 18 m and off Aşiyan Point on the southward route with 13 m. The study of the water and wind erosion of the straits relates to that of its formation, sections of the shore have been reinforced with concrete or rubble and sections of the strait prone to deposition are periodically dredged. These channels are the main pathway for sediments to the deep sea where they form sedimentary deposits. These deposits ultimately hold not only untapped reserves of gas and oil and our initial findings show that the flow in these channels is quite different to the flow in river channels on land. Specifically, as flow moves around a bend it spirals in the direction in the deep sea compared to the spiral found in river channels on land
22.
Chalcolithic
–
The Copper Age was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The archaeological site of Belovode on the Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the worlds oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting from 5000 BCE, the multiple names result from multiple recognitions of the period. Originally, the term Bronze Age meant that either copper or bronze was being used as the hard substance for the manufacture of tools. In 1881, John Evans, recognizing that the use of copper often preceded the use of bronze and he did not include the transitional period in the tripartite system of Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age but placed it at the beginning outside of it. He did not, however, present it as a fourth age, in 1884, Gaetano Chierici, perhaps following the lead of Evans, renamed it in Italian as the Eneo-litica, or Bronze-stone transition. The phrase was never intended to mean that the period was the one in which both bronze and stone were used. The Copper Age features the use of copper, excluding bronze, moreover, litica simply names the Stone Age as the point from which the transition began and is not another -lithic age. Subsequently, British scholars used either Evanss Copper Age or the term Eneolithic, around 1900, many writers began to substitute Chalcolithic for Eneolithic, to avoid the false segmentation. It was then that the misunderstanding began among those who did not know Italian, the -lithic was seen as a new -lithic age, a part of the Stone Age in which copper was used, which may appear paradoxical. Today Copper Age, Eneolithic and Chalcolithic are used synonymously to mean Evanss original definition of Copper Age, there was an independent invention of copper and bronze smelting first by Andean civilizations in South America extended later by sea commerce to the Mesoamerican civilization in West Mexico. The literature of European archaeology, in general, avoids the use of Chalcolithic, the Copper Age in the Middle East and the Caucasus began in the late 5th millennium BCE and lasted for about a millennium before it gave rise to the Early Bronze Age. The transition from the European Copper Age to Bronze Age Europe occurs about the same time, an archaeological site in Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of coppermaking from 7,500 years ago. In Serbia, an axe was found at Prokuplje, which indicates that humans were using metals in Europe by 7,500 years ago. Knowledge of the use of copper was far more widespread than the metal itself, the European Battle Axe culture used stone axes modeled on copper axes, even with imitation mold marks carved in the stone. Ötzi the Iceman, who was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, examples of Chalcolithic cultures in Europe include Vila Nova de São Pedro and Los Millares on the Iberian Peninsula. Pottery of the Beaker people has found at both sites, dating to several centuries after copper-working began there. The Beaker culture appears to have copper and bronze technologies in Europe. The term Chalcolithic is not generally used by British prehistorians, who disagree whether it applies in the British context, in Bhirrana, the earliest Indus civilization site, copper bangles and arrowheads were found
23.
Phoenicia
–
The enterprising, sea-based Phoenician civilization spread across the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to those of Ancient Greece, perhaps the most notable of which were Tyre, Sidon, Arvad, Berytus and Carthage. Each city-state was an independent unit, and it is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality. In terms of archaeology, language, lifestyle, and religion there was little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other Semitic Canaanites. The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make use of alphabets. By their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to Anatolia, North Africa, and Europe, where it was adopted by the Greeks, the name Phoenicians, like Latin Poenī, comes from Greek Φοίνικες. The word φοῖνιξ phoînix meant variably Phoenician person, Tyrian purple, the word may be derived from φοινός phoinós blood red, itself possibly related to φόνος phónos murder. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the ethnonym, the oldest attested form of the word in Greek may be the Mycenaean po-ni-ki-jo, po-ni-ki, possibly borrowed from Ancient Egyptian fnḫw Asiatics, Semites, although this derivation is disputed. The folk-etymological association of Φοινίκη with φοῖνιξ mirrors that in Akkadian which tied kinaḫni, the land was natively known as knʿn and its people as the knʿny. In the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC, people from the region called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani, the ethnonym survived in North Africa until the 4th century AD. Herodotus account refers to the myths of Io and Europa, according to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. The Greek historian Strabo believed that the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain, Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain. The people of Tyre in South Lebanon in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, however, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place. Canaanite culture apparently developed in situ from the earlier Ghassulian chalcolithic culture, Byblos is attested as an archaeological site from the Early Bronze Age. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, fernand Braudel remarked in The Perspective of the World that Phoenicia was an early example of a world-economy surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed c, archaeological evidence consistent with this understanding has been difficult to identify. A unique concentration in Phoenicia of silver hoards dated between 1200 and 800 BC, however, contains hacksilver with lead isotope ratios matching ores in Sardinia and Spain. This metallic evidence agrees with the memory of a western Mediterranean Tarshish that supplied Solomon with silver via Phoenicia
24.
Sirkeci
–
Sirkeci is a quarter in the Eminönü neighborhood of the Fatih district of the city of Istanbul, Turkey. The neighborhood borders to the North the mouth of the Golden Horn, to the West the neighborhood of Bahçekapı, to the East the Topkapi Palace area, Sirkeci hosts Sirkeci Station, the Southeastern long distance passenger train terminus in Europe for the Orient Express. The neighborhood consists mostly of commercial and tourist oriented uses, a combination of small shops, hans, offices intermingle with boutique hotels, traditional Turkish restaurants, Turkish and foreign-language bookstores, and tourist offices. In the Byzantine period, the area was known as Phosphorion, famous as the terminating point for the Orient Express, Sirkeci remains one of the main travel hubs for Istanbul, connecting suburban train, tram and ferry systems. The Sirkeci Station of the Turkish State Railways is the node of the European railway network leading into Istanbul. Moreover, this is the terminal of the railway line leading to Halkalı along the Marmara shore. The Marmaray project under construction, a railway tunnel being built under the Bosporus connecting the European and Asian networks. After many hotels has been opened in this district, Sirkeci has become one major hotel district in the historical peninsula, with its unique location between the Beyoğlu District and Sultanahmet, Sirkeci hosts many hotels with reasonable pricing options and availability. Eminönü Sirkeci Terminal Istanbul Main Post Office Istanbul Postal Museum
25.
Prosphorion Harbour
–
The Prosphorion Harbour was a harbour in the city of Constantinople, active from the time when the city was still the Greek colony of Byzantium, until the eve of the first millennium. Gradually enlarged, it was the first port to be built in the area of the future Constantinople, the inlet where the basin once lay is now silted up, and corresponds today to the east part of the Sirkeci railway station area, south of the Ottoman Sepetçiler köşkü. Administratively, the site belongs to the Mahalle of Hoca Paşa in Eminönü and its position lay immediately under the northwest slope of the first hill of the city. Thanks to its location along the shore of the Golden Horn, the harbour was protected from the heavy storms provoked by the Lodos. The first landing place to be met at the east, possibly lying near the Gate of Eugenius, was named after Timasius, a high officer active under Emperors Valens and Theodosius I. Another theory assumes that the name came from the market of the oxen. About two hundred years before that, Justinian I had already moved the market of the sea goods from the Prosphorion to the larger Portus Sophiae on the Marmara Sea. Inside the harbour, a place, the Scala Chalcedonensis, had been reserved for the inhabitants of Chalcedon, on the opposite side of the Bosporus. Despite that, the port had a commercial function, at the Prosphorion landed the commodities imported from the Bosporus. However, the harbour was subjected to heavy silting, so that at the eve of the first millennium it was blocked by the mud. Its only surviving function until the late Palaiologan period was that of dockyard for the Emperor during his trips from the Palace of Blachernae to the Hagia Sophia cathedral. The dockyard lay just in front of the Gate of Eugenius, known in that period as the Royal Gate, since the Emperor had to cross it in order to reach the church. In 1457, shortly after the fall of the city in 1453 to the Ottoman Empire, bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls, Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul bis zum Beginn d.17 Jh
26.
Neorion Harbour
–
The Neorion Harbour was a harbour in the city of Constantinople, active from the foundation of the city in the 4th century until the late Ottoman period. It was the first port to be built in Constantinople after its re-foundation by Constantine the Great, and the second in the area after the Prosphorion, which was the port of ancient Byzantium. The harbour lay on the shore of the Golden Horn, east of todays Galata Bridge. The inlet where the basin once lay is now silted up, in fact, entrance of sail ships into the Golden Horn was possible with all winds, the only wind which could create some problems and a light silting being the North wind. The harbour had the function of commercial port and shipyard. Since the main activity of the harbour was trade, the area was surrounded by many storehouses, according to a late tradition, St. Andrew the Apostle settled here and made the quarter the centre of his preaching when he landed in Byzantium. In 697 Emperor Leontios had the harbour cleaned from the mud, due to the Jewish presence in the area, in the Ottoman period the Byzantine Porta Neoriou of the sea walls changed its name to Çifutkapı. At the time of their expansion, the Latin staging areas extended quite a way west of Neorion. Along Neorions waterfront lay a portico, named Keratembolin, the name derives from a statue erected on a bronze vault, which represented a man bearing four horns on his head. According to a legend, in the area was also on display a statue of an ox which bellowed once per year. Because of that, Emperor Maurice ordered it thrown in the sea, one part of the harbour was known as the old equipment, and hosted a shipyard, in this neighborhood lay the church of Saint Euphemia. Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls, Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul bis zum Beginn d.17 Jh
27.
Byzantine Empire
–
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
28.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
29.
Ottoman Empire
–
After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
30.
Ottoman dynasty
–
The Ottoman dynasty was made up of the members of the imperial House of Osman. According to Ottoman tradition, the family originated from the Kayı tribe branch of the Oghuz Turks, the Ottoman dynasty, named after Osman I, ruled the Ottoman Empire from c.1299 to 1922. During much of the Empires history, the sultan was the regent, head of state. The imperial family was deposed from power and the sultanate was abolished on 1 November 1922 after the Turkish War of Independence, the Republic of Turkey was declared the following year. The living members of the dynasty were sent into exile as persona non gratae, though some have been allowed to return. In its current form, the family is known as the Osmanoğlu family, before Orhans proclamation of the dynasty, the tribe was known as the Bilecik Söğüt Beylik or Beys but was renamed Osmanlı in honor of Osman. The Ottoman dynasty is known in modern Turkish as Osmanlı Hanedanı, meaning House of Osman, in Ottoman Turkish it was known as Hanedan-ı Âl-i Osman, thus they still formally acknowledged the sovereignty of the Seljuk Empire and its successor, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. The first Ottoman ruler to claim the title of Sultan was Murad I. The holder of the title Sultan was in Arabic-Islamic dynasties originally the power behind the throne of the Caliph in Bagdad, the Ottoman sultans also claimed the title of Caliph starting with Murad I, who transformed the Ottoman state into a transcontinental empire. With the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II Fatih claimed the title Kaysar-i-Rûm Emperor of Rome and he appointed the Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadius Scholarius, whom he protected and whose status he elevated into leader of all the Eastern Orthodox Christians. As Emperor of Rome he laid claim to all Roman territories, Sultan Mehmed II also took the title of Padishah, a Persian title meaning Master of Kings and ranking as Emperor, claiming superiority among the other kings. He was the first Ottoman ruler to adopt the title of Padishah. The Ottoman claim to caliphate was strengthened when they defeated the Mamluks in 1517, as the empire grew, sultans adopted secondary titles expressing the empires claim to be the legitimate successor of the absorbed states. Furthermore, they tended to enumerate even regular provinces, not unlike the long lists of -mainly inherited- feudal titles in the style of many Christian European monarchs. Some early Ottoman Sultans even had to accept the status in the eyes of a foreign overlord. However, the Ottoman Caliphate too was abolished soon afterwards, and Abdulmecid II was utterly deposed and expelled from Turkey with the rest of the Ottoman dynasty on 3 March 1924
31.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
32.
Fatih
–
In 2009, the district of Eminönü, which had been a separate municipality located at the tip of the peninsula, was merged into Fatih because of the small population of Eminönü. Fatih borders the Golden Horn to the north and the Sea of Marmara to the south, while the Western border is demarked by the Theodosian wall, the name Fatih comes from the Ottoman emperor Fatih Sultan Mehmed, and means Conqueror in Turkish, originally from Arabic. The Fatih Mosque built by Mehmed II is in this district and it was on the ruins of the Church of the Holy Apostles, destroyed by earthquakes and years of war, that the Fatih Mosque was built, and around the mosque a large prayer school. The area quickly became a Turkish neighbourhood with a pious character due to the seminary. Some of this piety has endured until today, following the conquest, the Edirnekapı gate in the city walls became the major exit to Thrace, and this rejuvenated the neighbourhoods overlooking the Golden Horn. The last four were named after the founders of various Sufi orders, many other mosques, schools, baths, and fountains in the area were built by military leaders and officials in the Ottoman court. Fires continued to ravage the old city, and the roads that run through the area today are a legacy of all that burning. There are few buildings left in Fatih today, although right up until the 1960s. Nowadays, the district is made up of narrow streets with tightly-packed 5- or 6-floor apartment buildings. At present, Fatih contains areas including Aksaray, Fındıkzade, Çapa, the area has become more and more crowded from the 1960s onwards, and a large portion of the middle-class residents have moved to the Anatolian side and other parts of the city. Fatih was built with some degree of planning by the municipality. Istanbul University which was founded in 1453 is in Fatih, in addition, since 1586, the Orthodox Christian Patriarchate of Constantinople has had its headquarters in the relatively modest Church of St. George in the Fener neighborhood of Fatih. Fatih has many theatres, including the famous Reşat Nuri Sahnesi, the area is well-served with a number of schools, hospitals and public amenities in general. A tramway runs from the docks at Sirkeci, through Sultanahmet, and finally to Aksaray, also, besides the headquarters, some main units of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, including the citys fire department, are based in Fatih. Conservative political parties always do well in this area, küçükçekmece, Başakşehir, Bağcılar, Gaziosmanpaşa, Esenler, Bayrampaşa, Zeytinburnu, and Fatih are home to refugees of Syrian origin. There are 57 neighbourhoods in Fatih as of 2017, Grand Bazaar – as much to look at as to shop in. Spice Bazaar – another Ottoman caravanserai, not as huge as the Grand Bazaar but right on the water, next to Yeni Camii, Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque – in Kadirga District. Today, there are remnants of the sea walls along the Golden Horn and along the Marmara shore
33.
Aksaray, Fatih
–
Aksaray is a neighborhood in Istanbul, Turkey. Aksaray is a part of the district of Fatih and it is so named because it was founded by migrants from Aksaray in central Turkey, deported there in the 15th century by Mehmet II to repopulate the city after the its conquest. It also borders the neighborhood of Eminönü around the Pertevniyal Valide Sultan Mosque, Aksaray has a modern appearance, with many hotels and shops, mostly active in trade with Russia and Romania. Some reports in the Turkish media have claimed that the neighborhood is especially prone to prostitution because it is a no mans land between two adjoining police jurisdictions, Fatih and Eminonu, images of Aksaray neighbourhood Istanbul Aksaray Hotels
34.
Ayvansaray
–
Ayvansaray is a neighborhood in Istanbul, Turkey. It is part of the district of Fatih and part of the walled city and it lies between the southern shore of the Golden Horn, the Blachernae section of the Walls, and the neighborhoods of Balat and Edirnekapı. It corresponds to the old quarter of Blachernae, the name Ayvansaray is from Persian ایوانسرای and means Veranda Palace. This name hearkens back to the Palace of Alexios I Komnenos, Ayvansaray has a number of historic monuments, like the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, the mosque of Atik Mustafa Pasha, and the Ayazma enclosed in the small church of St. Mary of Blachernae. Images of the former Galata Bridge now between Ayvansaray and Sütlüce
35.
Kalenderhane Mosque
–
Kalenderhane Mosque is a former Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul, converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. With high probability the church was dedicated to the Theotokos Kyriotissa. The building is referred to as Kalender Haneh Jamissi and St. Mary Diaconissa. This building represents one among the few extant examples of a Byzantine church with domed Greek cross plan, the first building on this site was a Roman bath, followed by a sixth-century hall church with an apse laying up against the Aqueduct of Valens. Later – possibly in the seventh century – a much larger church was built to the south of the first church. A third church, which reused the sanctuary and the apse of the one, can be dated to the end of the twelfth century. It may date to between 1197 and 1204, since Constantine Stilbes alluded to its destruction in a fire in 1197, the church was surrounded by monastery buildings, which disappeared totally during the Ottoman period. After the Latin conquest of Constantinople, the building was used by the Crusaders as a Roman Catholic church, after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the church was assigned personally by Mehmed II to the Kalenderi sect of the Dervish. The Dervishes used it as a zaviye and imaret, and the building has been known since as Kalenderhane, the Waqf was endowed with several properties in Thrace, and many hamams in Istanbul and Galata. Some years later, Arpa Emini Mustafa Efendi built a Mektep, in 1746, Hacı Beşir Ağa, the Kizlar Ağası of the Topkapı Palace, built a mihrab, minbar and mahfil, completing the conversion of the building into a mosque. Ravaged by fire and damaged by earthquakes, the mosque was restored in 1855 and it was abandoned in the 1930s, after the collapse of the minaret due to lightning, and the demolition of the Medrese. Moreover, the minaret and the mihrab were rebuilt, which allowed the mosque to reopen for worship, the building has a central Greek Cross plan with deep barrel vaults over the arms, and is surmounted by a dome with 16 ribs. The structure has a typically middle Byzantine brickwork with alternating layers of brick, the entry is via an esonarthex and an exonarthex in the west side. An upper gallery over the esonarthex, following the plan of the one existing in the Church of the Pantokrator, was removed in 1854. Also the north and south aisles along the nave were destroyed, the tall triple arches connecting the aisles with the nave are now the lower windows of the church. The sanctuary is on the east side, however, the reconstructed mihrab, two small chapels named prothesis and diakonikon, typical of the Byzantine churches of the middle and late period have survived. The interior decoration of the church, consisting of colored marble panels and moldings. This is the oldest known representation of the saint, and may have painted only a few years after his death in 1226
36.
Zeyrek
–
Zeyrek is part of the Fatih district of Istanbul. It overlooks the Golden Horn, and got its name from the mosque of Zeyrek and it hosts also several Byzantine cisterns and the little Şeyh Süleyman Mosque, also of Byzantine origin. It is a picturesque but poor neighborhood, the center of Zeyrek is on the World Heritage list as part of the Historic Areas of Istanbul, the World Heritage site. Media related to Zeyrek at Wikimedia Commons Eyice, Semavi, petite Guide a travers les Monuments Byzantins et Turcs. Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls, Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul bis zum Beginn d.17 Jh
