The city has about eight thousand years of history. Proper established city goes 8th centuries BC, founded as an ancient Greek colony of Byzantium and become one of the important trade centers. The great Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, designated the city as the new capital of the empire in between 330-395 AD. After the Roman Empire divided into two, the city was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire in between 395 and 1453. More then a thousand years it was the capital of the empire and they created new culture between Greek and Roman and again between Paganism and Christian. Many important monumental buildings were built as master pieces of the Roman architectural style. The city was finally conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II on May 29th, 1453, an event often used to mark the end of the Middle Ages. It became the capital of the Ottoman Empire which was ruling in three continents. During the Ottoman era, the city became the major cultural, political, and commercial center all around the world. The city was designed by the Turkish and oriental art and many religious complexes, palaces, hans, bazaars were build all around city.
After World War I, Ottoman Empire collapsed and Republic of Turkey was established in 1923. However the founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moved the capital to Ankara, Istanbul is well known and the mist visited city with a very attractive history, architecture, religions etc.

The city has mainly three parts; Asian side which is mostly residential area, the modern side of Europe with the squares, art galleries, shopping and entertainment facilities and the historical side of Europe where there are most important historical sites are located.

The History of the City
Recent construction of the Marmaray tunnel unearthed a Neolithic settlement in the district Yenikapı on Istanbul's peninsula dates the city back to the 7th millennium BC, even before the Bosphorus was formed, the discovery indicated that the peninsula was settled thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Thracian tribes established two settlements on the Seraglio Point where the Topkapı Palace is now standing, between the 13th and 11th centuries BC. On the Asian side, artifacts have been found in Fikirtepe (present-day Kadıköy) that date back to the Chalcolithic period. The same location was the site of a Phoenician trading post at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC as well as the town of Chalcedon...