Quem faz injúria vil e sem razão,Com forças e poder em que está posto,Não vence; que a vitória verdadeira É saber ter justiça nua e inteira-He who, solely to oppress,Employs or martial force, or power, achieves No victory; but a true victory Is gained,when justice triumphs and prevails.
Luís de Camões
I believe you are wrong.
Arabs used to call this city as Konstantiniyye
However at 10 century Seljuk Turks used to call this city as Stamboul-Stambul.
Ottomans however use Konstantiniyye name in bureaucracy and people used to call this city as Stanbul
Evliya Çelebi in his diaries refer the city as İstanbul which is originated from Greek and meaning as "towards the city"
During the reign of Mustafa III. the name of Konstantiniyye removed from the coins and replaced with the name of İstambol
I think you are not used to visit or to be in such places.
Grand bazaar signifies the dynamism of the city which was rooted many years ago.
I really like the place. You can chat with some friendly herb dealers and have a nargile with them. Of course with a cup of Turkish coffee. You can find many spices and other unique goods.
i guess what people here fail to understand is that the greco roman and turkish history in that city can't be separated.
the hagia sofia was used as a mosque, and is just as famous for its islamic history now. one of the problems they've had restoring it, is that to reveal the ancient christian mosaics, they have to damage historic muslim art.
the city walls would not be standing now had the turks not restored them in the 16th - 19th centuries and used them for defence. without the turks, much of the greco roman heritage of the city would have been lost as it was in many western cities. not only did the turks maintain a connection with the city's greco roman past... they also added to it.. their mosques represent the same fashions you see in europe... being distinctly greco roman, baroque, romantic, victorian etc..
you cant simply sit there and say "oh the city is known for its greco roman monuments" because those monuments are just as much a part of the living turkish city as the sultanahmet mosque.
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Thats exactly my point and thats exactly what makes İstanbul such a unique city in the world
Also thats the reason why I love İstanbul so much.
You should visit İstanbul in 2010 since İstanbul is chosen as EU Cultural Capital for 2010. Many restoration works have been completed and many are still ongoing
Could be cool to see these defenses fully restored... Certainly a MAJOR tourist attraction for the city.
yea they actually were a lot taller, but there were moats in front of them and during the siege, they were filled in... so the walls seem shorter than they were ( thr still tall!! )
How many historical monuments are there in Constantinopel? I am asking this because i might visit it next year if every thing works out fine. Also if you could post a list of things that you need to see for sure i would really appreciate it. Thx.
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there are literally hundreds of historic things in istanbul.. its similar to saying "how many monuments are there in rome" as in rome... the best way to find them is simply to go walking cause you'll bump into things before you wander 150 meters.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Istanbul is a good place to start... its good to do a bit of studying before you go so you know what you're looking for..
if you have less than a week, you should include the following:
topkapi palace, hagia sofia, little hagia sofia, sultanahmet mosque, galata (the old italian quarter), the walls, the grand bazar, the basilica cistern...
if you have more than a week plan some day trips... go to iznik, the former capital of the ottoman empire, the empire of nicea and the HQ of diocletian.. its a walled city famous for its tiles and ceramics.. its only a short bus trip away and has all the roman, greek, etc ruins you want.
go to galipoli... see the ww1 battlefields, there's plenty of daytrips, its about 4 hours drive away on a good day. some of it's a bit touristy but once you start strolling through cemeteries you get the feel of the place...
do lots of walking daytrips... a lot of the old city is within walking distance and surprisingly compact for a city of 20 odd million people. there's several roman era cisterns underground, there's some amazing mosques and you're welcome to visit most as long as you take a note of their etiquette... the most amazing ones imo are the baroque ones which could be straight out of versailles..
visit the old parliament - its so victorian you would think you're in london... along the waterfront underneath beyoglu (head down hill past the stadium - its about 15 minutes walk from taksim square.)... beyoglu which is next to galata on the eastern side of the golden horn was the only place in the city even after being there for a month and a half that i never felt like a tourist as its the most cosmopolitan and european part of the city.. there's great gelato, plenty of terrible cheesy bars, trams and the amazing swedish embassy and a number of catholic cathedrals and jewish synagogues.
eat everywhere... although if you want to keep your pennies, avoid sultanahmet as you're going to get ripped off... even if you cunningly ask for local prices because it's tourist central.. although, once you've eaten walk sultanahmet at night, as its incredibly beautiful, and the hyppodrome monuments etc are prettier at night...
i could go on, but i think the turks in this thread will know some of the better less touristy things to do.
Last edited by antea; June 14, 2009 at 09:06 PM.
IN PATROCINIVM SVB MARENOSTRUM
"Therefore I am not in favour of raising any dogmatic banner. On the contrary, we must try to help the dogmatists to clarify their propositions for themselves. Thus, communism, in particular, is a dogmatic abstraction; in which connection, however, I am not thinking of some imaginary and possible communism, but actually existing communism as taught by Cabet, Dézamy, Weitling, etc. This communism is itself only a special expression of the humanistic principle, an expression which is still infected by its antithesis – the private system. Hence the abolition of private property and communism are by no means identical, and it is not accidental but inevitable that communism has seen other socialist doctrines – such as those of Fourier, Proudhon, etc. – arising to confront it because it is itself only a special, one-sided realisation of the socialist principle."
Marx to A.Ruge
maximum capitalism and flocks of young, hip and fashion chasing retards who pay 25tl for an eggs benedict...the cafes around Ortaköy, the night life in Istiklal and Nişantaşı and the region around boshphorus should also be seen. And for maximum capitalism, you can also visit Bağdat district and again Nişantaşı.
You mean Tzarigrad?
It's one city with different names, no big deal. Everyone calls it as they're used to.
And everyone probably have different reasons for visiting it. I or some Greek wouldn't look for the places where the janissaries were circumcised and trained, while it might be fascinating for a turk, who on the other hand won't rush to visit the St. Stephan church. The city's definetely rich in history, there's something for everyone.
Regarding the traffic? Is it that bad? I'm planning a trip to south Strandzha, Lozengrad and Istanbul either this summer or the next one (depens when I get enough free time), but I'll be with my own car.
it's been a couple of years since i was last there, but traffic was pretty chaotic.. not quite as bad as south asia, kind of similar to greece and italy but without the same vehicle testing and certificates... but there was some pretty random car quality standards - i have a photo of a 4 wheeled car driving along with only 3 wheels... no joke... apparently they're trying to improve vehicle safety standards and a german company was doing vehicle testing, but testing was still voluntary when i was there.
things may have changed a bit since then tho.
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There are literally hundreds if not thousands of monuments in Istanbul. Quite a lot of them are located in the old city which would be the only place you can accurately refer to as Constantinople. I'd love to see every single wall of the old city to be restored but then another question arise. Is it right to restore such monumental structures that were broken down as a part of history? What I actually want to happen is for government to slowly buy buildings inside the walls one by one and gave the land to Istanbul University which is located inside the wall. In time the whole city could be turned into a historical site under the supervision of the university where there would only be historical buildings as museum and university buildings, theaters, conference buildings and maybe a few historical hotel buildings. The only things needed are money and vision and both seem to be scarce resources when it comes to government.
A number of sites:
Istanbul Archeology Museum
The building is simply magnificent. I went there to listen to a small Jazz concert that took place in the yard right in front of the building. The building is huge but I couldn't find a better picture yet.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Last edited by PointOfViewGun; March 01, 2011 at 09:01 PM.
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The walls will/could not be repaired in near future because traffic is horrible and this makes the city unbearable.