Istanbul is the most populous city in Europe and Turkey with a population of more than 15 million. The city is divided into two parts as the European part and the Asian part by the Bosphorus strait and lies between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea.

The city was founded under the name of Byzantium in the 7th century BC. by a Greek tribe that came from Megara, Greece. It was renamed Constantinople in the 4th century AD. and declared the capital of the Roman Empire. Besides that, it was the capital of the Byzantine Empire until the year 1453, when it was conquered by the Ottomans led by Mehmed II and served as the capital of the Ottoman Empire until the fall of the empire in 1922.

The word “Istanbul” comes from the phrase “Stin Poli” (meaning “to the city” or “in the city”) in medieval Greek. This is how the residents of the city referred to it when the first Turks arrived in the city in the 15th century AD. and they called it “Istanbul”. This name was declared the official name of the city in 1930 by the Republic of Turkey and “Constantinople” was abandoned.

Contact us any time