Istanbul in city tour
Istanbul is one although with many different faces. Because of that, probably, I really like the comparison between this cosmopolitan city and the dragon. Dragons are legendary, mythical creatures who can fly, fight, guard people and protect heaven… Don’t you recognize Istanbul here? It’s legendary and mythical, powerful, with many heads and capable of reviving. Just like a dragon. Interestingly, unlike this ancient beast, Istanbul is not a frightening place. On the contrary, it’s a place that makes you curious, excited and ready to learn and enjoy.
City tour Istanbul following the footsteps of …
During our city tour Istanbul we will follow the footsteps of Constantine the Great, Justinian the First, Theodora. Who else? Definitely, Suleyman the Magnificent or Murad IV. Or we can simply talk about the riot of Nike. Whatever footsteps our tour follows, there is a promise for a knowledgeable and fun day. istanbul tours blog
Constantine the Great, after whom Constantinople was named. Or Suleyman the Magnificent, the ‘Kanuni’, who ruled for 46 years and doubled the territory of the Ottoman Empire.
North of Taksim Square is the place people know as New Istanbul. This is the place people started to inhabit in the last years of the Ottoman Empire and early Turkish Republic. This district in Istanbul has neighbourhoods like Elmadag, Nisantasi, Kurtulus and Sisli, which are worth visiting for good food or drink.
So you are welcome to have fun in the city tour Istanbul.
Interesting stories and city tour Istanbul
In the beginning it was Byzantium… However, if we go further back in time, we will find the small fishing village Lygos. It was settled on the European side of today’s Istanbul. Then, around 700 BC colonists from Megara in Greece, founded the city of Chalcedon on the European shore of the Bosphorus. And here comes Byzantium – the next name of the settlement.
Byzantium, comes after a Megarean colonist, Byzas, who established his new colony. There is a legend that says that Byzas was the son of Poseidon and a nymph, daughter of Zeus and Io. Before he was leaving Greece, he asked the oracle at Delphi where he should establish his new colony. The answer he got was enigmatic – ‘Opposite the blind’.
While he was sailing up the Bosphorus, he remembered the words of the oracle as he noticed the colony on the Asian shore at Chalcedon. Then on the European shore he saw the small fishing village of Lygos. It was built on a magnificent and easily fortified natural harbour of the Golden Horn. Thinking, as legend has it, that the settlers of Chalcedon must have been blind to disregard such a good and strategic position, Byzas and his fellows settled their new town there and named it after its founder Byzas, Byzantium.
Constantinople and Christianity
When Constantine wants to make Christianity main religion in Rome, he realises it will not be very easy. Being a provident emperor, he finds the solution quickly. The new place he conquered in 330 A.D. soon became the site of Roman Emperor Constantine’s “New Rome,” a Christian city of immense wealth and magnificent architecture. That was due to to the city’s geographic location between Europe and Asia and its natural harbour.
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