Constantinople/Istanbul: a vortex of peoples and cultures (324–1500)

Abstract

It has become a well-worn—if not unjustified—cliché to refer to Istanbul as a bridge between Asia and Europe, East and West, “Orient and Occident.” After all, the enormous city, which due primarily to rural-to-urban migration now counts more than fifteen million inhabitants, straddles the nineteen-odd-mile-long Bosphorus Strait that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara (which in turn is connected to the Mediterranean by the Dardanelles Strait), each with its own climate and vegetation. The Bosphorus Bridge (built 1973) and the Mehmed the Conqueror Bridge (built 1989) enable trucks to transport goods between the two continents easily and swiftly as well as many residents to drive back and forth between the Asian and European parts daily on their way to and from work. Every year the greater municipality organizes the world’s only marathon race that takes runners from one continent to another via the Bosphorus Bridge. The city’s topographical characteristic and the resulting geopolitical importance have become significant identity markers for Istanbul and, by extension, for the country as a whole.