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CITY OF WONDERS

CITY OF WONDERS. The one thousand faces of Istanbul. Location. The Peninsula nowadays known as the “city center” protrudes into the Bosporus (the easternmost point is called Sarayburnu - the Point of the Saray ). According to the tradition Istanbul was built on seven hills (like Rome).

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CITY OF WONDERS

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  1. CITY OF WONDERS The one thousand faces of Istanbul

  2. Location • The Peninsula nowadays known as the “city center” protrudes into the Bosporus (the easternmost point is called Sarayburnu- the Point of the Saray). • According to the tradition Istanbul was built on seven hills (like Rome). • In truth, along the edge running from The Acropolis (TopkapıSarayı) to the so-called Edirne Kapı with the Mosque of Mihrimah, one can notice six mounds. The seventh hill named Xerolophos (the “dried hill”) is divided in two by the Lykos river

  3. The Highest hill (Hagioi Apostles). Nowadays the site of FatihMehmet Mosque SARAYBURNU Forum of Constantine

  4. The Bosporus (Boĝaziçi)

  5. BOSPOROS- Mythology and Geography • Bous=Bull- os= Mouth/Ford/Passage • Io , the nymph loved by Zeus who turned her into a heifer to avoid detection on the part of his wife Era, crossed the path between the Propontis and the Black Sea, which thus acquired the name Bosporus. • Io escaped across the Ionian Sea to Egypt, where she was restored to human form by Zeus. There, she gave birth to Zeus's son Epaphus, and a daughter as well, Keroessa.

  6. In the centre there is a rapid current from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmora, but a counter-current sets in the opposite direction below the surface and along the shores. The surface current varies in speed, but averages nearly 3 m. an hour; though at narrow places it may run at double this pace. • The Bosphorus currents have fine features that depend on the topography and coastal features on its banks, revealing eddies and reversing currents in various of its embayments, as well as turbulent meandering of the main current. • Transience on various time scales in addition to the spatial features make the Bosphorus currents highly variable. Yet the main features of the current system are familiar. • The Bosphorus currents have a rapid response to sea level differences between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

  7. 31. 7 km long; and 3.3 km maximum width • In the Ottoman era it became a sort of Gran Canal (like the one in Venice) dotted by villages inhabited by fishermen. • As far as the CLIMATE is concerned, Istanbul is located on the edge of the so-called subtropical Marmara basin and it is influenced by both the Mediterranean and the Black Sea influxes. • A “microclimate” which brings about abundant rains but also periods of droughts. (average rain fall 691 mm. vs 367 of Ankara). However, the rainfall has never been enough to guarantee a convenient and effective supply of water and , therefore, water had to be conveyed into the city by means of conduits (aqueducts). • AVERAGE TEMPERATURE 13.7 degree (5 in January- 24 in July. However some Byzantine chronicles mention that it froze over.

  8. THE GOLDEN HORN (Haliç: Gulf) • Originally double the size of the current one, it is without currents due to the hills and mounds which enclosed it and shield it from the northern and the southern winds. • The winds and the currents hindered the navigation on the part of sailers and until XIII century, access to the local harbors was almost impossible in winter. • Although chilly winds blows in Istanbul, olive trees can grow as witnessed by the toponymZeytiburnu (Point of Olive Trees)

  9. WINDS • Istanbuls’ population has always been sensitive to the winds. The predominant north-east wind (poyraz from the Greek boreas) and the summer north-western Meltemiare still known today. • Moreover the arrival of shoals during the Teșrinler(October and November) and the stemming of the Erguvan (Judah’s Tree)-in April- were the hallmarks of the changing seasons during the Byzantine and the Ottoman period. As both the Emperors and the Sultans had alternative luxurious residences for the Summer and the Winter period.

  10. Among the privileged factors, constantly stressed by many historians and geographers, its position on an isthmus (a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas, usually with water on either side) which links Europe with Asia Minor and intersect manifold North-to-South shipping routes. • This did not imply any strategic advantages as the two sides of the Bosporus the two regions of Thrace and Bythinia were very flat and not fertile and so an easy prey for invaders. Moreover, the lack of water led to build very expensive cisterns • Eventually, the Anatolian fail running from east to west caused disastrous earthquakes (like in 1999).

  11. MODERN ISTANBUL • Metropolitan Area 12 million inhabitants on 5.3 square kilometers • Büyukșehir (the great Istanbul) is made of 32 urban districts (belediyeler) • Although 2/3 of the city are today om the Asian side the Anatolian part (Anadoluyakası) is regarded as distrinct from the Europeanpart (Avropayakası) • At the beginning of the 21th century its population counted for 15% of the entire Turkish population although it contributed by 42% to the fiscal revenues and boasted the 48% of the great Turkish industrial firms. • It has 2 airports and 20 universities (and counting)

  12. 1001 names for one city • Byzantion (lt. Byzantium): name given by the Thracian populations (group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in Central and Southeastern Europe) living on the Marmara shores and later adopted by the Dorian (one of the four major Greek ethnē into which the Greeks, or Hellenes, of the ancient period considered themselves divided [along with the Aeolians, Achaeans and Ionians] colons which settled in the region. • Constantinople (Polis of Constantine): name given to the city by the Emperor Constantine when he re-founded the city in 324-330 C.E.)

  13. From the 6th century onwards the inhabitants of Constantinople called the city ‘Rhome” and labeled themselves as Romans. • Istanbul: a word-of-the mouth name. • Indeed, one should notice that immediately after the conquest of the city on the part of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II in 1453 the city was called (on coins and documents Kustantinya) whereas in 18th century an artificial denomination (Islambol: ”filled with Islam”) was also in use. • Sultan Mustafa III (1757-1774) forbade the use of the name Kustantinyain official documents maybe as opposed to the Christian way of calling the city. • In 19th century other names came in use: Der(-i) Sa’adet (The Door of Felicity), Asitane (Threshold), Darü’lHilafe (House of the Caliphate). The name Dersa’ader was used until 1923. Similar to this name was also the official denomination of the seat of the Ottoman Government (the Sublime Door: Bab-i Ali)

  14. With the name ISTANBUL the Ottomans indicated the city center as distinct from Üskudar, Galata and Eyüp, the three other cities were Kadi were sitting. • Among the foreigners the name Stamboul as opposed to Galata (the so-clled European district on the opposite side of the Golden Horn) was also in use. • Only few Greek names of quarters have been preserved today: Fener, Samatya, Vlanga; some districts, indeed changed their names in 1923: Tatavla was replaced by Kurtuluș (Liberation)

  15. PREHISTORY • Within the greater of Istanbul, well outside the historic precinct, chance finds and systematic excavations are revealing the extent of this region’s prehistory. • The  periods represented extend from the Palaeolithic (400.000-15.000 B.C.), through Mesolithic (10.000-8.0000), Neolithic (8.000-6.000 B.C.) and Chalcolithic (8.000-3.500 B.C.), and then to the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age (thirteenth to twelfth centuries BC) transition. • Within central Istanbul proper building activities over the last century and in various locations, as well as general maintenance work by local councils, have brought to light a range of artifacts that provide clues to the occupation of this historically prominent region

  16. Ruins of huts (with round or oval plan) made of mud and weeds, in which ceramic containers have been yielded, are the best-known evidence of the first inhabitants of Istanbul. • These were hunters and gatherers who lived between 6.000 and 4.500 B.C. • The most ancient object (modeled and decorated) found in Istanbul harkens back to 7th century B.C.: a terracotta vase yielded in thearea of the Great Bazar • YENIKAPI EXCAVATIONS (2004-2012): it has been learned that Istanbul's history dates back further than was previously thought, some 8,500 years. 8,000-year-old skeletons were discovered and with the continuous excavations further graves have been unearthed. The graves reveal that Istanbul used to be home to the earliest settlements during the Stone Age.The skeletons were found in four prehistoric graves.

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