Where to Stay in Istanbul, İstanbul

What is Istanbul known for?

Istanbul is known for the great monuments of the old city, set on the hills above the Bosphorus. The skyline is all domes and minarets. Hagia Sophia and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque face each other across a public square, Topkapı Palace looks out over the water from its point, and the Grand Bazaar fills a warren of covered streets nearby.

Three empires left their mark.

What are the main landmarks in Istanbul?

Istanbul carries its landmarks along the ridges of the old city and across the water in Galata. Hagia Sophia towers over the peninsula. The Süleymaniye Mosque crowns the highest hill above the water, the Galata Tower answers it from the far bank, and the Aqueduct of Valens still strides across the valley between them.

Trade left its own monuments. The Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar cover whole quarters, while the Istanbul Archaeology Museums and the Chora Church guard the art of the Byzantine and Ottoman centuries. Stone marks every skyline.

What is the history of Istanbul?

Istanbul grew from Byzantium, a Greek colony on the point where the Bosphorus opens to the Sea of Marmara. Emperors made it a capital. As Constantinople it became the seat of the Roman and then the Byzantine world, and Hagia Sophia rose as the greatest church of that age, its dome standing over the old city for centuries.

The Column of Constantine still marks the forum from that first founding. Every trade route flowed through its harbour. The Ottomans took the city in 1453 and made it their capital in turn.

New rulers reshaped the skyline. Topkapı Palace spread across the point above the water, the Süleymaniye Mosque and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque raised their domes and minarets over the hills, and the Grand Bazaar grew into a covered city of its own. Hagia Sophia was kept and reworked.

The old church became a mosque, the walls and cisterns of the Byzantines survived beneath the streets, and the name Istanbul slowly replaced Constantinople. The Galata Tower watched over the harbour from across the water. Layer sits on layer across the city.

Where is Istanbul?

Istanbul covers both banks of the Bosphorus, the strait that carries the sea between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Steep hills rise on the old side. The historic peninsula juts out where an inlet cuts in from the strait, splitting the European shore, while the Asian districts climb the far bank across the water.

The city belongs to two continents.

What is the climate of Istanbul?

Istanbul has a mild transitional climate, poised between the warm south and the cooler air off the Black Sea. Summers are warm and humid. The two seas hold the heat in a comfortable band through the long days, while winters stay cool and grey, with rain off the Bosphorus and the odd fall of snow on the domes.

Wind off the strait is constant.

How do you get to Istanbul?

Istanbul is reached through large airports on both sides of the city, with most long-haul flights landing on the European side. Trains run under the strait. A rail tunnel carries the metro beneath the Bosphorus between the continents, ferries thread across to the Asian shore and up the inlet past the Galata Bridge, and trams link the old city to the water.

The crossings run day and night.