50 Fun Facts About Istanbul

Istanbul lies on the strait between the Black Sea and which smaller inland sea?

About two-thirds of the city's 15 million people live on the European shore and the rest in Asia, making it a city on two continents.

Which city replaced Istanbul as Turkey's seat of government in 1923?

The Republic chose Ankara as capital in 1923, but Istanbul remains the economic, cultural and historical centre.

The city was founded around 657 BC by Greek colonists from Megara under what name?

Legend traced the settlers to Byzas, son of Poseidon and the nymph Ceroëssa; a Thracian village called Lygos may have stood there first.

Which Roman emperor refounded the city in 324 AD, initially calling it New Rome?

It was proclaimed capital of the Roman Empire on 11 May 330 and kept his name for 1,600 years.

The name 'Istanbul' is commonly held to derive from a Medieval Greek phrase meaning what?

Local Greeks simply said eis tḕn Pólin, since it was the only major city around; the Ottomans also nicknamed it Dersaadet, the 'Gate to Prosperity'.

Over the 16 centuries after 330 AD the city served as capital of how many empires?

Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman: the Latin Empire lasted only from the 1204 crusader sack until the Byzantine restoration of 1261.

Which crusade was diverted in 1204 to sack Constantinople and set up the Latin Empire?

By the time the Byzantines retook the city in 1261 its population had shrunk to about 100,000 from half a million in the 8th century.

Which Ottoman sultan captured Constantinople on 29 May 1453 after a 55-day siege?

The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, died in the fighting; the conqueror then styled himself Kayser-i Rûm, the Caesar of Rome.

During the 1453 siege, how did the Ottomans get their ships past the chain blocking the Golden Horn?

The fleet slid over the Galata hill on 22 April; the floating chain itself had been ordered by Constantine XI to prevent a repeat of the 1204 crusader breach.

Orban, who cast a giant bombard for the Ottoman siege of 1453, is usually described as what nationality?

He had first offered his services to the Byzantines, who could not afford him; most of the siege guns were actually made by Turkish engineers such as Saruca.

Who was the chief architect of Suleiman the Magnificent's reign, designer of the Süleymaniye?

Suleiman's reign (1520–66) also saw Ottoman ceramics, calligraphy and miniature painting flourish; the city held 570,000 people by 1800.

The name Constantinople was officially changed to İstanbul in which year, inspiring a later novelty song?

The same Postal Services Law renamed Smyrna as İzmir among many other places; the song 'Istanbul (Not Constantinople)' came in 1953.

The last Ottoman sultan left the city into exile aboard a British warship in which year?

The Grand National Assembly had abolished the sultanate on 1 November; he died in Sanremo, Italy, in 1926.

Which future president launched his political career as mayor of Istanbul in 1994?

In 2019 he warned that 'if we fail in Istanbul, we will fail in Turkey', shortly before his party lost the mayoralty to Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Despite the seven-hills myth, roughly how many hills lie within Istanbul's city limits?

The tallest, Aydos, reaches 537 metres; the city's area is over 5,300 square kilometres, coterminous with Istanbul Province.

What is a native or resident of Istanbul called in English?

In Turkish it is İstanbullu; the modern name is spelled with a dotted capital İ, which the Turkish alphabet distinguishes from the dotless I.

Hagia Sophia was completed in AD 537 under which Byzantine emperor?

Designed by the geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, it was the world's largest interior space and among the first with a fully pendentive dome.

In which year was Hagia Sophia's museum status revoked and the building redesignated as a mosque?

Its 31-metre dome made it the world's largest cathedral for more than a thousand years, and it became a mosque within hours of the 1453 conquest.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, built 1609–17, is popularly known by the name of which colour?

Thousands of İznik tiles and painted floral motifs in blue give it the nickname; it stands across from Hagia Sophia on the site of the old Hippodrome.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is unusual for having how many minarets?

Folklore says the architect misheard the sultan's request for 'altın' (gold) minarets as 'altı' (six), a number until then unique to the mosque at Mecca.

Topkapı Palace was the Ottoman administrative centre until which palace was completed in 1853?

Sultan Abdulmejid I moved the court in 1856; Topkapı kept the treasury, library and mint before becoming a museum in 1924.

The name Topkapı, given to the palace in the 19th century, means what in Turkish?

It was originally the 'New Palace', to distinguish it from the Old Palace at Beyazıt Square; its treasury holds the Spoonmaker's Diamond and the Topkapı Dagger.

The Grand Bazaar's Turkish name, Kapalıçarşı, translates as what?

It has 61 covered streets and more than 4,000 shops, and in 2014 topped the list of the world's most-visited attractions with over 91 million visitors.

The Grand Bazaar's core began in 1455/56 as a hall for trading which goods?

The sultan's Cevâhir Bedestan, the 'Bedesten of Gems', was endowed to the Hagia Sophia mosque's charitable foundation when it opened in 1461.

The Spice Bazaar has been Istanbul's main spice market since which century?

The open-air Mahmutpasha Bazaar links it to the Grand Bazaar; the spice market dates from 1660.

The Galata Tower was built in 1348 as a watchtower by colonists from which Italian city?

Called the Christea Turris, it was then the tallest building in the city at 66.9 metres; the Ottomans later used it as a prison and a fire lookout.

Who supposedly strapped on wings in 1638 and glided from the Galata Tower across the strait to Üsküdar?

The 'first intercontinental flight' is of doubtful authenticity, but the name lives on at one of Istanbul's airfields.

Istanbul's Basilica Cistern is famous for column bases carved with whose head?

Texts claim 7,000 enslaved people built it in the 6th century; it was forgotten until 1565, when a French traveller was rowed between its columns and saw fish below.

The Maiden's Tower on its islet off Üsküdar is also known by the name of which figure from Greek myth?

Legend also tells of a princess locked there to dodge a prophesied snakebite, only to be killed by an asp hidden in a fruit basket; the tower featured in The World Is Not Enough.

The first bridge across the Bosphorus, linking Europe and Asia, opened in which year?

It was followed by a second bridge in 1988, the Marmaray rail tunnel in 2013 and the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and Eurasia road tunnel in 2016.

The Marmaray, opened in 2013 beneath the Bosphorus, was the first rail link between which two regions?

It joins the metro lines on both shores and forms the intercontinental commuter line from Halkalı to Gebze.

The Tünel funicular, the world's second-oldest underground railway, opened in which year?

Istanbul's modern metro only arrived with the M1 line in 1989.

Sirkeci Terminal became famous as the eastern terminus of which legendary train service from Paris?

International rail service began in 1889 with a line to Bucharest; the station closed for Marmaray works in 2012.

Which airport, opened in 2001, is the main one serving the Asian side of the city?

Atatürk Airport's 1953 terminal appeared in From Russia with Love; it closed to passengers in 2019 when the vast new Istanbul Airport took over as the Turkish Airlines hub.

Which Istanbul club, founded in 1903, is the oldest of the big three and carries the Turkish flag in its logo?

As Turkey's only club at first, it sometimes represented the whole Ottoman Empire in international competition.

Istanbul's most heated football rivalry pits Galatasaray against which club from the Asian shore?

Between them they hold 24 and 19 Süper Lig titles; the fixture crosses a continental boundary as well as a city.

Which stadium hosted the 2005 Champions League final, Liverpool's comeback from 3–0 down against AC Milan?

UEFA picked it again for the two following pandemic years, but those finals were moved to Lisbon and Porto.

Istanbul Park circuit hosted which Formula One race between 2005 and 2011 and again nine years later?

The track also staged World Touring Car and Le Mans Series rounds in 2005 and 2006 but neither has returned since.

Galatasaray High School, the oldest public high school in Turkey, was established in which year?

Istanbul University traces itself to 1453, and Istanbul Technical University of 1773 is the world's third-oldest university devoted entirely to engineering.

What Turkish word describes Istanbul's illegally built squatter houses, literally 'built overnight'?

Migration from Anatolia after the 1950s multiplied the population tenfold, and many such districts are now being replaced by mass housing.

What are the waterside summer mansions Ottoman elites built along the Bosphorus called?

They line both the European and Asian shores; the former village of Ortaköy gives its name to a mosque beside the first Bosphorus bridge.

Which animal, numbering from 100,000 to over a million, is considered a symbol of Istanbul's streets?

Rose-ringed parakeets have also colonised the city, as in several other European capitals.

Which sultan sent a fleet to evacuate Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492?

Admiral Kemal Reis led the navy; Ottoman Jews could work in any profession and came to dominate medicine in the city.

From about 1500 to 1750 Istanbul was the largest city in Europe, until it was overtaken by which city?

Around 500 CE Constantinople had already edged out Rome as the world's largest city, jostling with Baghdad and Chang'an for centuries afterwards.

The 2013 nationwide protests in Turkey began over plans to redevelop which Istanbul park?

The government wanted to rebuild the Ottoman-era Taksim Military Barracks, demolished in 1940 to make way for the park.

Which fault, locked beneath the sea just south of the city, makes Istanbul earthquake-prone?

It caused the quakes of 1766 and 1894, and more than 500,000 vulnerable buildings have been demolished and replaced since 2012.

Which Istanbul district, named after the conqueror of 1453, corresponds to old Constantinople?

It is the 'historic peninsula' on the southern shore of the Golden Horn, facing the old Genoese citadel of Galata.

Obelisks in which Istanbul square mark the site of the Byzantine Hippodrome?

Constantine expanded the arena to seat tens of thousands; the Column of Constantine from 330 AD still stands nearby.

Istanbul's pedestrianised İstiklal Avenue, with its nostalgic trams, runs through which district?

Its 1990 pedestrianisation sent traffic onto the new Tarlabaşı Boulevard; the avenue leads to Taksim Square.

The Bosphorus is described as the world's narrowest strait used for what?

More than 200 million tons of oil pass through each year, which is why a bypass called Canal Istanbul was proposed in 2011.