Your travel guide to Istanbul
The place between Bebek and Rumeli Hisari was named as Lamekopi in Greek and Boğazkesen in Turkish. The district takes its current name from the Turkish poet Tevfik Fikret’s home. The meaning of the Persian word “Aşiyan” is “bird’s nest”.
0 Comment » It’s located between Kuruçeşme and Bebek. Its name was Hesta in antiquity. In the Byzantine period the place was also known as Promotu and Anaplus. Ayios Mihael Church, one of the important places of worship in Boğaziçi was here. Mosaic icons of Archangel Mihael were stored in this church told as built by Constantine. It’s unknown when and for what reason this place named as Arnavutköy. According to a rumor, Albanians have been settled there by II. Mehmet (Fatih).
Besiktas is one of the oldest neighborhoods in İstanbul. It’s located in the Rumeli side of the Bosporus, between Ortaköy and Tophane. It’s neighbor to Sisli in the West, Beyoglu in the south, and Sarıyer in the north.
According to the written sources about past, its original name is “Beştaş”. This name is coming from five-stone columns Barbaros Hayreddin Pahsa set up to connect the ships to the coast. “Beştaş” name has evolved to Besiktas over in time.
Besiktas district, consists of 23 neighborhoods which are Abbasağa, Akatlar, Arnavutköy, Balmumcu, Bebek, Cihannüma, Obelisk, Etiler, Gayrettepe, Mansions, Kuruçeşme, Kültür, Levazim, Levent, Mecidiye, Ortaköy, Muradiye, Nispetiye, Sinanpaşa, Türkali, Ulus, Yıldız and Vişnezade. (more…)
Istanbul cuisine offers a taste of the most delicious traditional Turkish cuisine to the people as the kitchen of palace. The kitchen containing the properties of Eastern and Western cultures and habits emerged in İstanbul.
Meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and all kinds of spices are used in Istanbul kitchen. Many of seafood, veal, lamb, goat, chicken, geese, ducks, foods made from rabbits and some birds, meat and vegetables cooked together in the pot meal, made from vegetables and olive oil eaten cold, “dolma”, salads, sherbet made with many fruits and compote, milky desserts and sweets made from dough are just some of them that Istanbul cuisine may offer you. (more…)
Hagia Sophia (known as Sancta Sophia in Latin and Ayasofya in Turkish) is one of the oldest historical structures in the world standing for nearly 1500 years. In its long history it has been damaged and rebuilt for several times up to now. Howover, it is still standing as a great sample of architecture today.
It was built as a church when the time of Constantinopole. In 1453 Sultan Mehmet conquered Constantinopole and decided to convert the church into mosque. The Hagia Sophia served as a mosque for about 500 years. And In 1934 it was converted to the Ayasofya Museum. Today many people come to visit there.
You can take an online tour here and see the whole Hagia Sophia structure (your browser may need plugins).