Welcome to Istanbul

İstanbul is Turkey’s most developed and largest city, with the latest discoveries indicating that the history of human habitation here goes back some 400,000 years. The purple years of İstanbul started in 330 when Emperor Constantine declared the city the capital of his empire – royal purple was the color of the Byzantine imperial family. Until 1453, when it was conquered by the Ottomans, the city served as the capital of the Byzantine Empire. During the reign of the Byzantines, İstanbul known at the time as Constantinople, was adorned with a number of great monuments, which made it the most magnificent city in the world – this was true even during the declining years of the empire.