OUR COUNTRY: TURKEY
Our Main Cities
As Turkish team, we’ d like to start with introducing our main cities. Members of our e-twinning team prepared an article about Turkey’ s main cities. We’ d like to start with Istanbul, which is bigger than 23 countries in Europe.
ISTANBUL
Istanbul is the most crowded city in Turkey. Istanbul is the center of commerce. It connects Asia continent and Europe continent. The city has 39 districts. It has 14.657.434 population.
History
The first settlement started in Istanbul 30 thousand years ago with Megaras( B. C. 30000-B. C. 667). In B. C. 667 its name was Byzantium. It was an ancient Greek city-state from B. C. 667 to B. C. 196. After B. C. 196 it was the capital city of Late Roman and East Roman. In 330 its name was Konstantinopolis. It was the capital city of Byzantium from 300 to 1453. After 1453 it became the capital city of Ottoman Empire until 1923. After 1923 it was a city of Turkish Republic.
Historical Places of Istanbul Ramparts: Istanbul Ramparts was built in seventh century. Their length is 27km.
Dolmabahçe Palace: Ottoman Empire built it in 17th century. It served as the main administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 to 1887 and 1909 to 1922.
Galata Tower: It was built in 528. One of the city ' s most striking landmarks, it is a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline and offers a panoramic view of Istanbul ' s historic peninsula.
Hagia Sophia: Before the conquest of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia( 1453) was a church. Then the church was converted into a mosque after the conquest. It became a museum in 1934 by Atatürk ' s command.