Istanbul City of Two Continents

City with a history of thousands of years has made ​​many peoplefall in love with its charm. Napoleon whoonce ruled half of Europe had dubbedIstanbul as the capital of the world. Orhan Paruk, Nobel literature laureates in 2006 to dedicate aspecial book forher hometown. Even the latest James Bond moviereportedly scheduled to be re-filmed in this city, following two new film From Russia With Love and The World is not Enough. Historical and cultural wealth of Istanbul's specialsummarized, as told by Hani SulastriHamid, Executive summaryby darmansjah

Istanbul is one of the largest city in Turkey. Although no longer functioning as the capital of Istanbulsince 1923 but remains the most important in this country. Every year millions of tourists visit this city because of the many interesting places that are not owned by another State. If you love traveling andare interested to learn the history, background of Istanbul who was formerly Byzantium and Constantinople, and the long history of the Ottoman Empire that make this cityhas many interesting relics, you havebeen to Istanbul asits history is rich do not be surprised if Istanbul is crowned European CultureCapital in 2010.Another thing that makes this city interesting is it lies on two continents, Asia andEurope.


Region is the first time I visited Sultanahmet, the mostfuturistic in Turkey. Here there are many buildings that must be visited by tourists such as Hagia Sophia, Topkaki Palace, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern and Grand Bazaaar. Because of its location adjacent to, any building can be visited in one day wkatu full. By the timeI visited the Hagia Sophia, the queue tobuy tickets waslong snaking becausemany wanted to see first hand thecharm of this historicbuilding. Hagia Sophia is the redbuilding with a lot of the dome. At first Istanbulwas an icon ofa church founded byEmperor Justinian in the 6th century toreplace the previous cathedral destroyed by fire. In 1453 Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople Hagia Sophiachanged into a mosque. Substitution of the functions of the church into a mosque seen onvarious sides of thismagnificent building. Among the mosaic-mosaic depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ on the walls visitors can see and written in Arabic calligraphyAllah and Muhammadin big letters. The interesting thing here is a stone that has a perforation in the middle called the wishstone. When visitors enter and conductanother round of thumb, it is hoped will be achieved. Oh yes, the Hagia Sophia to entervisitors must pay 20 lira for a ticket.

After visiting the Aya Sofia, I headed Topkaki Palace. Not too far away from Hagia Sophia, enough to walk about five minutes. After paying $ 20 lira admission, I then entered the gates of the magnificent Palace Topkaki like a palace in a fairy tale. There is a large door and two buds dome on the right and left. The palace was formerly the residence of the Ottoman dynasty sultan. Here visitors can see the Harem, the palace which is where the sultan to various activities. I can feel the grandeur of being a sultan when I saw this place. Topkaki also save a lot of historical objects such as jewelry, clothing and tools of war legacy of the Ottoman Empire that ended at the beginning of the 20th century. This palace also save a lot of Muslim heritage artifacts, among which is one of the swords of the Prophet Muhammad SAW.

Having exhausted the magnificent surrounds Topkaki Palace and very wide, I went to the Blue Mosque. Blue mosque is said to be due to the blue dome is very beautiful when viewed from a distance. Historic mosque is a place to rest and worship for those who are Muslims. Because it is still used as places of worship, visitors do not have to pay admission like other historic buildings. Interestingly the mosque does not prohibit non-Muslim visitors to enter. They can go as long as it uses decent clothes that cover arms and legs. Board may lend the mosque fabric covering the arms and legs when a visitor needs it.

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