İSTANBUL - THREE CITIES IN ONE

The visitor to modern İstanbul actually gets to experience three great cities at the same time. There is Byzantium, established by Greek traders on the site of an ancient city and even older prehistoric settlements. Byzantium became the seat of the Roman emperor Constantine, took his name (Constantinople) and became the greatest city in the Empireand  the largest and wealthiest city in the world. Surviving the fall of Rome itself, Constantinople eventually fell to the Ottoman Turks and became İstanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire and then chief city of modern-day republican Turkey, with great historic sights and buildings at almost every turn.

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