Ottoman Urban Istanbul

I marked the new millennium with an important discovery: the dramatic beauty of Turkey. Nothing quite prepared me for my first visit to Istanbul. As we flew over the city, the view was breathtaking: the elegant minarets of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque pierced the sky to the south of the Golden Horn, and to the north, the striking landmark of the Galata Tower rose above the medieval Genoese citadel. Istanbul is divided in three by the Bosphorus Strait, the dividing line between Europe and Asia, with the Black Sea to the north and the Marmara Sea (an offshoot of the Aegean) to the south. The old city is clustered onto the peninsula around Sultanahmet, to the west of the Bosphorus, while across the Golden Horn to the north lie the districts of Galata, Beyoglu, Harbiye and Taksim, the heart of modern Istanbul.