Istanbul is one of the world's greatest cities, economically, culturally, historically,
as well as in terms of size and population. With possibly more monuments per
square kilometre than any other city on the planet, it's no wonder that it is one
of UNESCO's most important world heritage locations and has finally been
selected as European Capital of Culture 2010.

Like every great city, it has its distinct districts, nooks, crannies
and idiosyncrasies. As a foretaste of the My Favourite Planet
guide to Istanbul David John shows us a few of them.

This is the only remaining public sculpture in Istanbul I can think of which can be described as equestrian. It is part of a sculptural group in Sarachane Park near the 4th century Aqueduct of Valens depicting solemn-looking types in beards. There is no inscription to enlighten us as to who made these sculptures or what events they represent. One can only assume that the subject matter is so familiar to local people that it needs no explanation.

The flying rider is in fact Sultan Mehmed II, known in Turkish as Fatih Sultan Mehmet - the Conquerer - after whom Istanbul's Fatih area and disrict are named. Presumably the other figures are his generals, advisors and/or kinsmen. Mehmet conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453, one of his many conquests which consolidated and expanded the Ottoman Empire and finally put an end to the last remnants of the 1000 year-old Byzantine Empire.

Not only did I not spot any live dolphins or fish around Istanbul, I also noticed the total absence of horses on the city streets. It has been a while since my last visit here, but I remember there used to be horses pulling all manner of vehicles and wares around town. Where have they all gone? Have they been banished from the centre, or have they simply been replaced by the ubiquitous Japanese mini-vans? The hectic pace of noisy traffic here and the arrival of new tramlines make the Istanbul street an unhappy place for horses anyhow.

Right here there should be photo of a real bear. But as with the fish and the horses (see above), I didn't manage to get an Istanbul bear in front of my camera lens.

Until a decade or so ago it was not uncommon to see dancing bears throughout the Balkans and Turkey. Pulled along by a chain fastened to a ring through the nose, the creatures were led to towns and villages and made to perform during local festivities.

On a previous visit to Istanbul I visited the local zoo, where adults encouraged children to taunt and throw objects at distressed-looking bears in a tiny squalid cage. Perhaps things have improved for the animals since, but I couldn't face the prospect of their misery again. *

Bogazici Zoo and Botanic Park

* Since writing this blog I visited Gülhane Park in the Sultanahmet district again, and indeed the terrible old zoo has been closed down. The new, Bogazici Zoo and Botanic Park, Turkey's first privately run zoo, is on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, about one hour from the centre of Istanbul, at the seaside town of Darıca, in the Kocaeli Province of the Marmara region.

Istanbul, the land of cats

Since writing this blog I have visited Istanbul again (see Istanbul essentials - Part 3: Istanbul wedding dance).

There I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Henrik Hofmann, a vet from Butzbach in Germany, who was visiting the city with his family. Henrik is a man with ideals and an active interest in animal welfare. He runs a blog in German called Es Spricht (It speaks) about his works and interests. The 30 April 2011 edition, "Istanbul ist Katzenland" (Istanbul is the land of cats) www.es-spricht.de/katzen-in-istanbul/, features several of his wonderful photos of cats in Istanbul to accompany his article about the plight of the enormous number of stray animals in the city.

In the blog he also calls for information about animal protection organizations in Turkey.
If you can help him, please send a message through his blogsite.

The area of Istanbul was inhabited as far back as 9,000 years ago during the Neolithic era. Between the 13th and 11th centuries BC Thracian tribes established two settlements, Lygos and Semistra, near the site of the present Topkapi Palace. The Thracians were driven out around 660 BC by Greeks from Megara under King Byzas who founded Byzantium (Greek Byzantion). The city was strategically important in controlling the Bosphorus as a route between the Mediterranean and Black Seas and a crossing point between Europe and Asia.

In 73 AD Byzantium became part of the Roman Empire, and when Constantine I became emperor in 324 AD he replanned it as the new eastern imperial capital Nea Roma (New Rome). However it quickly became known as Constantinople (Konstantinoupolis, the city of Constantine), a name which stuck right into the 20th century. In 330 AD the city was proclaimed capital of what was to become known as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire. It also became the powerful centre of the Greek Orthodox church and medieval Greek culture.

Byzantine power began to decline by the beginning of the 13th century, and in 1204 Constantinople was captured by Roman Catholic troops of the Fourth Crusade, after which it became part of the Latin Empire. The enfeebled Byzantine Empire managed to reestablish itself in 1261 but the Ottoman Turks were soon to set themselves the task of conquering it.

Sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror" took Constantinople on 29 May 1453, and thereafter it became a predominantly Muslim city.

The name Sultanahmet is often used to describe the entire old city of Istanbul within the city walls and the peninsula on which stands. But strictly speaking, Sultanahmet is the area around the Sultanahmet Camii, also known as the Blue Mosque, which was built for Sultan Ahmet (ruled 1603-1617) by architect Mehmed Aga "Sedefkar" (died 1622) who had been an apprentice of Sinan.

Before the establishement of the modern Greater Istanbul Metropoltan Area, with its 39 districts encompassing the 5,343 square kilometres of land on the European and Asian sides of the Bosphorus Strait, the successive names Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul referred to the city on the peninsula itself. This also became known as Eminönü, which now just refers to the tip of the peninsula around the the Yeni Camii (New Mosque) near the Galata Bridge. Officially, the old city is now the metropolitan district of Fatih (confusingly also the name of a neighbourhood in the west of the old city, famous for its nationalistic Muslim conservatism).

The other three important modern administrative districts of the Istanbul, as far as most visitors are concerned, are Beyoğlu on the other side of the Golden Horn, which includes the areas of Galata and Taksim; and on the Asian side of the Bosphorus Strait Üsküdar (the ancient Greek Chrysopolis and medieval Scutari) and Kadıköy (the ancient Chalcedon).

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