ISTAMBUL (TURKEY)

 Istanbul : is the largest city and metropolitan area of Turkey and the prefecture of the province of the same name. It is inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1985. Istanbul is the main financial , commercial and industrial center of Turkey, is the cultural capital of the country. Istanbul has 13,522,528 inhabitants (2012) . It is also one of the largest megacities in the world.
Located on both sides of the Bosphorus , thus straddles two continents: Europe and Asia, it is generally considered European because the historical city is located on the western shore of the Strait.
It is the largest city in the country with over thirteen million inhabitants (although estimates put the figure of six million ), which is also one of the largest cities of continent , and is also the main economic hub Turkey.
Officially called Istanbul since March 28, 1930 , she wore other names during its history ( still sometimes used in different contexts ) include: " Byzantium" at the time of its founding and " Constantinople " (from May 11, 330 in honor of the Roman Emperor Constantine I ) .

Also known as the "New Rome " (incidentally, like Rome , Istanbul is founded on seven hills ), Istanbul first belonged to Thrace and the Roman Empire which it was the second capital after 395 (now the east Roman Empire in the sixteenth century and called " Byzantine " by Hieronymus Wolf ) , then the Ottoman Empire since May 29, 1453, and finally , just after the fall of it August 10, 1920 , the Republic of Turkey , which it was the capital until 13 October 1923 when this role was vested in Ankara.
The former names of the city, Byzantium and Constantinople , reflect this long history. Only a few other large cities had three names in their history. From a historical perspective , we can consider with Athens and Rome, Constantinople (Istanbul) is one of the three most important ancient capitals today .
The inhabitants of ancient Byzantium were called Byzantiotes and those of Constantinople , the Constantinopolitan or Politains . By cons , no citizen of the Eastern Roman Empire was never called Byzantine : they defined themselves as "Romans" and when they became subjects of the Ottoman Empire , it was held in the Milliyet Rum . Istanbul residents are Stambouliotes or Istanbuliotes .