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#182
Social Programs
and Pre&Post Tours
Feel the History
in İstanbul
Look around in İstanbul and you will see marvelous buildings
with the touch of the best architects of their time, the sparkling
lights of the Bosphorus Bridge, the elegant blue tiles of
mosques, and the mosaics of Christianity.
İstanbul, one of the most ancient cities
in the world, surely deserves to
be called “an open air museum”. With
its 8,500 years of history, the city had
various names such as Byzantium,
Agusta Antonina, Dersaadet, Asitane,
Constantinople, and Konstantiniye,
and was eventually named İstanbul.
According to records, the city is
founded by colonists led by Byzas in
7 BC. Once settled by Byzantines, the
city became the trade and commerce
center. In 330 AD, Constantine I allowed
the Christianity to the public. In
1453 Sultan Mehmet II conquered the
city which served as the Ottoman Empire’s
capital until 1923.
All of these historical empires created
their own arts, architects and monuments.
The old city area in İstanbul –
now called “Sultanahmet” – is where
those rulers mostly built their cultural,
social and political life. Built by the
order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian
I in the 6th century, Hagia Sophia
(Ayasofya), the Church of Holy Spirit,
includes pagan pillars taken from
Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis
and precious mosaics of Christianity
and Islam. Hagia Sophia is converted
into a mosque following the conquest
of İstanbul.. Since 1935, the building facilitates
as a museum.
Across Hagia Sophia stands the magnificent
Blue Mosque, built in 1617
upon the order of Sultan Ahmet I. It
is the only mosque with six minarets.
Originally named as the Sultanahmet
Mosque, it is also known as the Blue
Mosque due to its handmade blue and
turquoise porcelain tiles brought from
İznik.
The primary residence for Ottoman
Sultans for almost 400 years, Topkapı
Palace is a large complex with hundreds
of rooms and chambers built
as a fine example of Ottoman architecture.
The Palace Museum contains
many holy relics of the Muslim world
and Ottoman miniatures, Islamic calligraphy
as well as Ottoman jewellery.
Built as a reservoir to hold significant
water storage for the Hagia Sophia in
the 6th century, then for the Topkapı
Palace in the Ottoman period, the Basilica
Cistern is today a significant art
and culture centre of İstanbul. The
water stored here came from the Belgrade
Forest via aqueducts. There are
336 marble columns each 9 meters
long, in the Basilica, creating a very
mysterious atmosphere. There is also
a Medusa head and a Gorgon head
under the two columns in the Cistern.
Walking down the once The Hippodrome
(known as At Meydanı), you
will come across the 25-meter high
Obelisk of Theodosius - an ancient
Egyptian obelisk of Pharaoh Tutmoses
III that is re-erected in the Hippodrome
of Constantiople by the Roman
emperor Theodosius I. The Egyptian