Cities by the sea ebook

Known as Constantinople or Byzantium Istanbul is the biggest Turkish city; it was also the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul is now a huge motropolis connecting cultures, continents and religions.

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, constituting the country’s economic, cultural, and historical heart. With the population of 13.9 million, Istanbul is the third-largest city in the world by population within city limits.

Istanbul is a transcontinental city, straddling the Bosphorus – one of the world’s busiest waterways – in northwestern Turkey, between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies in Europe, while a third of its population livesininnorthwestern Asia.

Istanbul is located Turkey within the Marmara Region. The Bosphorus, which connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, divide the city into a European side, Thracian side and an Asian side, Anatolian side.

Because of Istanbul’s location between the Sea of Mamara and the Black Sea, the city has a moderate climate.

The Bosphorus remains strategically important. It is a major sea access route for Russia and Ukraine.

In more recent years, the Turkish Straits have become particularly important for the oil industry.

Russian oil, from ports is exported by tankers to western Europe and the U.S. via the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles Straits.

The Bosphorus of Istanbul is particularly famous for the historic waterfront houses ‘yalı’ built during the Ottoman period, which stretch along the strait’s European and Asian shorelines.

Every year million of tourists come to Istanbul to see and feel the natural and the historical beautiness of it.