46 Fun Facts About Istanbul

Istanbul lies on the strait between the Black Sea and which smaller inland sea?

The Sea of Marmara sits between the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, so every ship sailing between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean passes through the middle of Istanbul.

Which city replaced Istanbul as Turkey's seat of government in 1923?

Ankara had been the headquarters of the Turkish national movement during the war of independence, while Allied forces occupied the old capital, and the new Republic made it the seat of government in 1923.

Istanbul began in the 7th century BC as Byzantium, a colony founded by which people?

Greeks from Megara founded Byzantium; one legend says an oracle sent them to settle 'opposite the land of the blind', meaning earlier colonists across the strait who had missed the better site.

By tradition, what did Constantine the Great name the capital he dedicated on the Bosphorus in 330?

New Rome is the name tradition gives, but the one that stuck was Constantinople, 'Constantine's city', which his own coinage came to carry.

The name 'Istanbul' is commonly held to derive from a Medieval Greek phrase meaning what?

To the city: Greek speakers said eis tḕn Pólin, 'to the City', when they meant going to Constantinople, the one city that needed no name, and the phrase is thought to have become Istanbul.

Which Byzantine dynasty retook Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261?

Palaiologos: Michael VIII Palaiologos's general Alexios Strategopoulos slipped into the city in July 1261, ending the Latin Empire, and the dynasty ruled the restored empire until 1453.

Which crusade was diverted in 1204 to sack Constantinople and set up the Latin Empire?

The Fourth Crusade set out to win back Jerusalem but was diverted, sacking Christian Constantinople in April 1204 and setting up a Latin Empire there; it never reached the Holy Land.

After taking Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II claimed which title?

Caesar of Rome, or Kayser-i Rûm, was the title Mehmed II took, arguing that whoever held the emperors' old capital was heir to the Roman Empire itself.

During the 1453 siege, how did the Ottomans get ships past the chain blocking the Golden Horn?

Hauled them overland: Mehmed had the ships dragged on greased logs over the hill behind Galata and launched into the Golden Horn behind the chain, bypassing it entirely.

The gunfounder who cast a giant bombard for the Ottoman siege of 1453 is usually described as what nationality?

Hungarian is the usual description of Orban, the gunfounder who first offered his skills to the Byzantine emperor; when Constantinople could not meet his price, he sold them to the sultan instead.

Who was the chief architect of Suleiman the Magnificent's reign, designer of the Süleymaniye?

Mimar Sinan was drafted into the Janissaries and built military bridges and fortifications before turning to architecture; as Suleiman's chief architect he designed the Süleymaniye, finished in 1557.

Which Turkish state service formally retired the name Constantinople in 1930?

The post office: a 1930 postal law made İstanbul the official name, one Turks had long used in everyday speech, and Turkey began pressing other countries to drop Constantinople too.

In 1922 the last Ottoman sultan slipped out of Istanbul into exile aboard a warship from which country?

Britain's battleship HMS Malaya carried Mehmed VI away on 17 November 1922, sixteen days after the Grand National Assembly abolished the sultanate; he died in exile in Sanremo in 1926.

Which future president of Turkey rose to national prominence as mayor of Istanbul from 1994?

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul in March 1994 for the Welfare Party and became prime minister in 2003 and president in 2014; his AKP lost the mayoralty to Ekrem İmamoğlu in 2019.

What is a native or resident of Istanbul called in English?

Istanbulite is the English word, while Turks say İstanbullu; Turkish treats dotted İ and dotless I as different letters, which is why the city's name is properly written İstanbul.

Hagia Sophia was completed in AD 537 under which Byzantine emperor?

Justinian I commissioned it after the Nika riots of 532 and dedicated it in 537; Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles gave it a pendentive dome over what was then the world's largest interior space.

Before becoming a mosque again in 2020, Hagia Sophia spent 85 years as what?

A museum from 1935 under the secular republic, Hagia Sophia went back to Muslim worship in July 2020 after a court annulled the decree that had made it one.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is popularly known by the name of which colour?

Thousands of İznik tiles and painted floral motifs in blue give it the nickname; Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa built it for Ahmed I, facing Hagia Sophia.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is unusual for having how many minarets?

Folklore says the architect misheard the sultan's request for 'altın' (gold) minarets as 'altı' (six), a number until then unique to the mosque at Mecca.

Topkapı Palace was the Ottoman administrative centre until the court moved to which palace in 1856?

Dolmabahçe, finished in 1856 on the Bosphorus shore, gave Sultan Abdülmecid I the European-style palace he wanted in place of medieval Topkapı, which kept only the treasury, library and mint.

The palace name Topkapı means what in Turkish?

Cannon Gate: the name passed to the palace from a seaside pavilion by that gate which burned down; before that it was simply the 'New Palace', as opposed to the Old Palace at Beyazıt Square.

The Grand Bazaar's Turkish name, Kapalıçarşı, translates as what?

Covered Market is the literal meaning, after the roofed streets that shelter its thousands of shops; Turks also call it Büyük Çarşı, the 'Grand Market', which matches its English name.

The Grand Bazaar's core began in 1455/56 as a hall for trading which goods?

Mehmed II's Cevâhir Bedestan, the 'Bedesten of Gems', opened in 1461 as a hall for trading textiles and jewels; it was endowed to the charitable foundation of the Hagia Sophia mosque.

Istanbul's Spice Bazaar is known in Turkish by the name of which land?

Egypt gives the Mısır Çarşısı, the 'Egyptian Bazaar', its name: built in the 1660s beside the New Mosque, it is said to have been paid for with taxes from Ottoman Egypt, and it sold the spices shipped from there.

The Galata Tower was built in 1348 as a watchtower by colonists from which Italian city?

Genoa's colonists built it in 1348 as the Christea Turris, the Tower of Christ, at the highest point of their walled trading colony of Galata; the Ottomans later used it as a prison and fire lookout.

Istanbul's Basilica Cistern is famous for column bases carved with whose head?

Medusa heads carved on reused Roman blocks prop up two columns in the cistern's north-west corner, one of them upside down; where the blocks came from is unknown.

The Maiden's Tower on its islet off Üsküdar is also known by the name of which figure from Greek myth?

It is also called Leander's Tower, after the Hero and Leander legend that properly belongs to the Dardanelles; another tale has a princess locked there to dodge a prophesied snakebite, killed by an asp in a fruit basket.

The first Bosphorus Bridge was renamed in 2016 after what event?

A failed coup: rebel soldiers blocked the bridge on the night of 15 July 2016, and later that month it was renamed the 15 July Martyrs Bridge for those killed resisting them.

The Marmaray, opened in 2013 beneath the Bosphorus, was the first rail link between which two regions?

Thrace and Anatolia, Turkey's European and Asian halves, were first joined by rail when the Marmaray tunnel opened in 2013, four years late after digging at Yenikapı uncovered Byzantine-era remains.

The Orient Express from Paris ended its journey at which Istanbul station, built in 1890?

Sirkeci, on the European shore, was built in 1890 as the Orient Express's eastern terminus; Haydarpaşa, across the water, was the terminal for trains heading on into Asia.

Which airport, opened in 2001, is the main one serving the Asian side of Istanbul?

Sabiha Gökçen Airport, named for Atatürk's adopted daughter and Turkey's first female combat pilot, opened at Pendik in January 2001; Atatürk Airport closed to passengers in 2019 when the new Istanbul Airport took over.

Which Istanbul club, founded in 1903, is the oldest of the big three and carries the Turkish flag in its logo?

Beşiktaş JK was founded in 1903 as a gymnastics club, two years before Galatasaray, and is one of the few Turkish clubs granted the right to carry the national flag on its crest.

Istanbul's most heated football rivalry pits Galatasaray against which club from the Asian shore?

Fenerbahçe, based in Kadıköy on the Asian shore, has met Galatasaray in the 'Intercontinental Derby' since their first match in January 1909; the fixture crosses a continental boundary as well as a city.

Which stadium hosted the 2005 Champions League final, Liverpool's comeback from 3–0 down against AC Milan?

The Atatürk Olympic Stadium staged the 2005 final, won by Liverpool on penalties after trailing Milan 3–0; its 2020 and 2021 finals were moved to Lisbon and Porto by the pandemic, and it hosted again in 2023.

Istanbul Park circuit hosted which Formula One race between 2005 and 2011 and again nine years later?

The Turkish Grand Prix ran at Istanbul Park from 2005 to 2011 and came back in 2020 and 2021 to fill gaps the pandemic left in the calendar; Felipe Massa won it three years running from 2006.

What Turkish word describes Istanbul's illegally built squatter houses, literally 'built overnight'?

Gecekondu means 'landed overnight', for houses thrown up in a night on public land; migration from Anatolia after 1950 swelled the city from about one million people to over fifteen million.

What are the waterside summer mansions Ottoman elites built along the Bosphorus called?

Yalıs take their name from a word that also means 'shore': one was usually a family's second home at the water's edge, so going to the yalı meant going to the seaside.

Which animal, numbering from 100,000 to over a million, is considered a symbol of Istanbul's streets?

Feral cats, estimated at anywhere from 100,000 to over a million, roam freely because residents feed and shelter them as shared neighbourhood pets; the 2016 documentary Kedi made film stars of them.

Which sultan sent a fleet to evacuate Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492?

Bayezid II sent the navy under Kemal Reis to bring Sephardic Jews expelled by Spain's 1492 Alhambra Decree to Ottoman lands, where they faced none of the bans on professions common in Christian Europe.

From about 1500 to 1750 Istanbul was the largest city in Europe, until it was overtaken by which city?

London overtook Istanbul around 1750; more than a thousand years earlier, as Constantinople, the city had itself taken Rome's place as the largest in the world.

The 2013 nationwide protests in Turkey began over plans to redevelop which Istanbul park?

Plans to build over Taksim Gezi Park by reconstructing the Ottoman Taksim Military Barracks, demolished in 1940, sparked the protests of May–June 2013 that spread across Turkey.

Which fault, locked beneath the sea just south of the city, makes Istanbul earthquake-prone?

North Anatolian is the fault's name, and it runs under the sea about 20 km south of the city; a rupture on it near İzmit, to the east, killed more than 17,000 people in August 1999.

Which Istanbul district covers old walled Constantinople on the historic peninsula?

Fatih, named for Fatih Sultan Mehmed, the conqueror of 1453, covers the walled historic peninsula between the Golden Horn and the sea, the whole of what was once Constantinople.

Obelisks in which Istanbul square mark the site of the Byzantine Hippodrome?

Sultanahmet Square occupies the Hippodrome, where the Obelisk of Theodosius and the Walled Obelisk mark the old spina; Septimius Severus built the arena and Constantine enlarged it to seat tens of thousands.

Istanbul's pedestrianised İstiklal Avenue, with its nostalgic trams, runs through which district?

Beyoğlu, the old Pera, is where İstiklal Avenue runs from Tünel Square to Taksim Square; once the Grande Rue de Péra, it took the name İstiklal, 'Independence', after the Republic was founded.

At its narrowest, the Bosphorus is roughly how wide?

700 m or so is all that separates Europe from Asia at the narrowest point, where the Ottomans built a fortress in 1452 to stop ships reaching Constantinople before the siege.