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12 April 2008


A little bit about Istanbul



Emblem of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality


Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul, historically named Byzantium and later Constantinople) is Europe's most populous city (the world's 4th largest city proper and 19th largest urban area) and Turkey's cultural and financial center.

The city covers 27 districts of the Istanbul province. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait, and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) side of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world which is situated on two continents.

In its long history, Istanbul served as the capital city of the Roman Empire (330-395), the Byzantine Empire (395-1204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922).

The city was chosen as joint European Capital of Culture for 2010. The historic areas of Istanbul were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.

Now, we would be looking at places that will be visited by IVAC’08 secretariats in this program. These places will be elaborate more on the next upcoming entries:


*subject to change


p/s – all link given in this entry are from wikipedia.com