I must fess up. I didn’t arrive at Istanbul
expecting to like the place. A large city. Crowded. A culture difficult to
understand. Nope, I wasn’t going to like it. I love being wrong.
The city sits at the mouth of the Bosporus which
is the strait that connects the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea. The Bosporus
also divides Europe from Asia. Istanbul stretches across both continents. In
the picture of the Bosporus, Europe is on the left and Asia on the right.
Istanbul conjures up lots of exotic images of
sultans, harems, Lawrence-of-Arabia type images. While some of that exists in
the historical aspects of the city, the modern day Istanbul is a bustling place
with much to see and do. We had arranged for a private tour with fourteen
others from our ship and met our guide, Aykut Ayik from Istanbul Custom Tours (IstanbulLocalGuides.com), early
in the morning near the terminal. He was there right on time and our group
crossed the street to a waiting mini bus and began what was to be a spectacular
day. |
| The Bosporus-Europe on left, Asia right |
The streets of Istanbul are notoriously busy and congested but with Ike’s (Aykut’s nickname) commentary we hardly noticed. The
slow moving bus also allowed for lots of looks at shops, restaurants, and
hotels as we passed by. Ike began with some of the history of Istanbul. The
name was originally Constantinople when Constantine I, the Roman emperor, made
it the new eastern capitol of the Roman Empire on May 11, 330. Constantinople
remained the principal name through the Byzantine era and was the most common
name used for it in the West until the early 20th century.
The name Istanbul can be traced back to the 10th
century however and is from a Greek phrase that translate to “in the city” or
“to the city.” The city has also been nicknamed “The City on Seven Hills”
because the oldest part of the city was built on seven hills on the historic
peninsula and each hill bears a historic mosque. At prayer times throughout the
day, (if I recall correctly there are 5) loud speakers from the minarets echo
throughout the streets a muslim chant that is a reminder for all to take time
to pray.
On March 28, 1930, the Turkish authorities
officially requested foreigners to adopt Istanbul as the sole name in their own
languages.
With a lot more history involving battles and
struggles for power, Ike filled our time until we arrived at our first stop,
the Topakai Palace. We had seen the expansive palace from our ship as we
arrived in the evening the night before. Now we were about to enter into the
world of the sultans of Turkey and learn just what a harem was all about. We
were surprised.
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