Istanbul's history lies back to 13C BC,to Myceanean Settlement which nothing is virtually known of. Its actual history starts with the founding of Byzantium in the 7C. According to the tradition, the founder of Byzantium was Byzas the Megarian, who established the colony of Megarians and Athenians on the acropolis above the heights of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. Before settling, Byzas had consulted the Delphic Oracle in Greece, who advised him to settle "the opposite of the Land of Blind". What the oracle referred was Khalkedon which is known as "Kadikoy" today on the Asian part of Istanbul. The reason why the ancient Byzantium was founded on the Acropolis opposite to Chalcedon was its strategic position. Ottoman Sultan Mehmed "the Conquerer of Istanbul" was well aware of this fact that he had the Imperial Residence built on the same area as Byzas did centuries ago...

Byzantium quickly became a centre for trade and commerce, acquiring wealth from its fisheries and the customs fee. It was dominated by other city states, including the Persians and in 441-440 BC it joined the Samos and other Greek cities in Asia Minor in a revolt against Athenian Domination but they could not succeed...In 441, during the Peleponesian War, Byzantium revolted once again against Athens with Sparta after three years later, They were defeated in a naval war in Hellespont (strait Dardanelles).In 403, the Athenians were defeated and the famous Peleponesian Wars ended. After alliances and fights between the Athenians and Byzantiums, Macedonians, under the leadership of Alexander the Great in 334, won the war of Granicus and gained the control of the Byzantium.After the death of Alexander the Great, Byzantium was captured by combined forces of Bithynia(today's Izmit town), Pergamum and Rhodes. Then in 133, the last ruler gave his kingdom to Rome and Byzantium became a part of the Province of Asia more than 250 years...

In the 2C AD, Byzantium was swept up once again by civil war between the Emperor Septimus Severus and his rival Percennus Niger.After he defeated Niger, he took over and had the city walls constucted. The walls begin at Golden Horn lying to Galata Bridge and end at the lighthouse standing on the coastal road to the airport today. He enlarged the city twice as it was.

At the beginning of the 4C AD, Byzantium played extremely important roles in the events taking place in roman Empire. The struggle ended with the victory of Constantine, the emperor of the West. The Byzantium opened its gated to Constantine, the sole ruler of the Roman Empire.From then on, he moved the capital and put his name as "Constantinople". In 325, the First Ecumenical(world-wide) Council of the Christian Church was held in Nicaea. (today's Iznik town, famous for its blue tiles in Blue Mosque). He favoured to accept the Orthodox religious doctrine and toleration for the Christians. Finally in 451 AD, at the Council of Chalcedon (today's Kadikoy), the Byzantium Emperor became the head of the church and the State and gained enormous power. The religion of the Byzantium was Christianity(Orthodox doctrine) from then on...

Another emperor, who had contributed to Byzantium was Theodosius II who had a splendid new cathedral called the "Haghia Sophia" the Divine Wisdom. It replaced a wooden basilica church which had been constucted by Constantine. In the 6C, the city was predominantly Christian...

Another age started in Byzantium with Justin I in 518 which is accepted as the beginning of the imperial era. He was an illiterate soldier and he had to rely on the advices of his young, dynamic and well-educated nephew, Justinian. He slowly climbed the stairs up as being a Consul, Caesar and co-emperor in 527 AD which led the way up to the Imperial Throne...After he became Emperor, he married to Theodora,an old dancer and singer who turned to be a strong believer of Christianity. She influenced Justinian and changed evertyhing suitable for a fully-Christian Byzantium. She had all the Pagan Schools closed and made the Christian tradition stronger.

In the year 532, Justinian was overthrown by a revolt in the ancient Hippodrome, called "Nika Revolt" which caused many buldings to collapse and badly damaged including the splendid Haghia Sophia. He ordered a big and beautiful Greek Orthodox Church to be constructed as well as the city to be restored. During his reign, Constantinople was one of the biggest cities in the world..

The history of the Byzantium may last pages and pages.  The history until today is going to be summarized by the author so that it becomes clearer to understand and associate with today's remainings.

Even though, no one could consider that such a big empire can collapse, that eventually happened. There are various reasons for that. Firstly, there were internal reasons. These were the fightings between the high ranking officials or for the throne, that is the conspiracy theories to mix the agenda and have superiority over one another. Secondly, there were external reasons. As the empired began loosing its territories in the West, it continously started to defend its borders, so a passage from offensive to defensive position... It was an empire based on lies, conspiracy theories, traps, deceipt and mass killings as well as lots of assasinations. There were financial and economic reasons, the public was angry at the Blachernia Palace for not being fair about the distribution of the income.However, in my opinion, the most noteworthy reason for the collapse of Byzantium was the internal reasons, which tore down the balance of power in the Empire...

After Latin Invasions and continuing internal problems, the Empire could not realize the small Turkish Principality which was located in the Southern East of Constantinople, on the other end of Marmara Gulf, so-called the "Ottomans". They were founded in 1299 in a small city Bursa, Sogut and their founder was Osman Bey. His son Orhan Bey enlarged the Principality and his son Murad, went on conquests in Europe, fought the War of Varna. Afterwards Bayezid the Thunder fought many wars and continued to knock the door of Europe. Finally in 1453, 21-year-old Mehmed II(the Conqueror),after years of preparation period, succeeded to conquer the city and the first thing he did was converting Haghia Sophia to a mosque and pray God and prophet Muhammed for his victory...

From then on, the name "Constantinople" was converted to "Istanbul" which is how it was called by the Ottomans. is the name of the city and became a Muslim city. The Ottoman Empire adopted the city as the major city and the center for the government. Mehmed the Conqueror also ordered the "Topkapi Palace"to be constructed and this palace constituted the heart of the whole Empire which lasted more than 600 years.

The Ottoman Empire reached its peak in the early 16C when they conquered Egypt and had the caliphacy pass over to the Ottomans. It meant that an Ottoman Sultan was to be the highest ranking religious person in the Muslim World. However,when the famous emperor, Suleiman the Magnificient, failed in the Battle of Vienna, he was gone into depression. He was a big leader and failure was not of his style. His dreams of conquering Vienna and becoming immortal could not come true and that was the beginning of the end...The splendid Mosque of Suleiman in Istanbul is from those days.

The Ottoman Empire went into a stagnation period in 1699, the Treaty of Karlowitz.. Prior to that time, the empire had continously enlarged its boundaries and was always offensive. This treaty meant that the empire can no way be offensive any longer...

That period was followed by a decline and end period. The Ottoman Empire became the "Sick Man of Europe" to be partitioned by the European Powers after the WW I. IN 1919, a young and talented soldier, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, came to the scene and Turkey started defending herself. He was also the commander of Gallipoli Campaign which was fought against ANZAC, British and French Troops in 1915. The Independence War was successfully won by the Turks and then came the revolutions in Alphabet, Dress, Meaurement Systems and abolishment of the Sultanate as well as Caliph System. Everything was replaced by its modern way which led the way to Modern Turkey. Ataturk died in Istanbul, Dolmabahce Palace; a rather modern palace dating back to 1856. He was born in 1881 in Thessaloniki, Greece and died in 1938. There were many more things to do when he left us...

Currently, Turkey is a Republic with a National Grand Assembly, a Constitution, flag and national anthem. It is a parliamentary system with 550 MPs, a president and a PM.