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FIND OUT WHAT TURKEY HAS TO OFFEREditor’s Daily PickISTANBUL “THE CITY”, BACK THEN AND NOW AND ALWAYS
Unlike mountains, deserts and oceans that divide people and cultures; valleys, rivers and plains bring them closer. Thus the important cities of our planet thrived at crossroads of these geographical passages.
But among all, only one city, a city which is founded in the very heart of the known ancient world, at a junction where two continents come closest, yet are separated by a slender body of water -too wide to be called a river and too narrow to become a sea - could uniquely and continuously define a frontier in not only bringing together but also dividing people and cultures during its twenty-six century-old existence.  This city therefore would be called “The City”. Next to her opulence, any other would barely pass as a lifeless parish.
Since Constantine the Great moved his capital from Rome to here, no other city could continuously claim to be an imperial capital for sixteen centuries.  Few other cities sparked the attraction for self-aspired powers nearby and in far fledged lands, which jealously placed their greedy eyes on her thick walls of defense. They came from all corners of the ancient world, from the fjords of Gothic Scandinavia and from the red dunes of Arabian deserts, to the bottom of these stubborn walls, to seize an opportunity to pierce through them and claim the city for themselves.
It was not just the riches what attracted them, but also the wisdom of this noble city. Ista