The only major city in the world to stand on two continents
Europe and Asia, divided by the Bosphorus
Geography · Cities
Istanbul
founded as Byzantion c. 660 BC
Turkey — on the Bosphorus, straddling Europe and Asia
The only major city in the world built across two continents, divided by the Bosphorus strait and cut again on its European side by the inlet of the Golden Horn. Under three earlier names it was the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman empires for some sixteen centuries. It is Turkey's largest city and the most populous in Europe, but it is not the country's capital: that role passed to Ankara in 1923.
How to spot them
- ▸The only city on two continents, split by a strait joining the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Byzantium', 'Constantinople', 'the Golden Horn', 'the Sublime Porte'
- ▸Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar
- ▸Europe's most populous city, yet not its own country's capital
Key facts
Founded as Byzantion by Greek colonists from Megara, and later renamed for the emperor who made it his new Rome (c. 660 BC; refounded AD 330)
Constantine I dedicated it in 330; the modern name became the sole official one in 1930
Its horn-shaped harbour inlet was once closed against attackers by a great chain across its mouth
The Golden Horn
Capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman empires in turn, before losing capital status in 1923 (1923)
Ankara became the capital of the new Turkish Republic
Justinian's great domed church of 537 became a mosque in 1453, a museum in 1935 and a mosque again in 2020 (537)
Hagia Sophia; the architects were Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus
It fell to Mehmed II on 29 May 1453, ending the Roman Empire in the East (1453)
Mehmed had ships dragged overland into the Golden Horn to bypass the boom
Its six-minaret imperial mosque of 1616 is known in English for the colour of its interior tiles (1609–1616)
The Sultan Ahmed or 'Blue' Mosque, faced with Iznik tiles
Quick-fire facts
- •Successive names: Byzantion (Byzantium), Constantinople, and officially Istanbul from 1930
- •The Bosphorus links the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and thence, via the Dardanelles, to the Aegean
- •Population of the province is roughly 15–16 million, making it the most populous city in Europe
- •The Ottoman government was known to European diplomats as 'the Sublime Porte', after a palace gate
- •Topkapi Palace was the sultans' residence from the 1460s until Dolmabahce Palace replaced it in 1856
- •The Basilica Cistern, built under Justinian, has 336 columns and two Medusa-head bases
- •The Grand Bazaar has some 4,000 shops; the Spice (Egyptian) Bazaar is its smaller neighbour
- •The 'Historic Areas of Istanbul' were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985
- •The Marmaray rail tunnel, opened in 2013, runs under the Bosphorus and links the two continents
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Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Historic Areas of Istanbul
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Istanbul