Ortaköy, now a central district of İstanbul, was once a fishing village situated well beyond the city walls. This charming area has its own very long history (called Arkheion in antiquity) and a tradition of cosmopolitanism that included a mix of ethnic groups and religions. The old square is located …
The area around the Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque) square is one of the oldest parts of the city. The Roman emperor Septimus Severus began construction of this grand square in 196 AD and it was completed as the “Hippodrome’ in the time of Emperor Constantine I (324- 337). This district was …
Sirkeci is the area squeezed between Sultanahmet and the historical section up the hill and the historical docks below. Like Sultanahmet and the Palace (historical peninsula) this district, too, was one of the earliest Byzantine settlements and lay directly outside of the old palace walls. Here was the site (Called …
The Ottoman city of Istanbul grew to have two faces. The first was the face of the Empire, a world empire steeped in Islam and tradition-home of Islamic institutions, pious charities, and traditional Turkish life. The second face was one that increasingly turned towards the west. This was the Istanbul …
A walk from the Sultanahmet Square, past the covered bazaar and the campus of the very ancient Istanbul University towards the commercial area of Aksaray takes us through the district of Laleli. Lale means “tulip” in Turkish and Laleli means “with tulips” which makes us think that this was probably …