For thousands of years, Istanbul has been a crossroads between worlds, combining East and West in its own distinctive and uniquely self-assured culture.
You can feel it strolling the Grand Bazaar, the largest covered market in the world and once the terminus of both the Silk Road across Asia and the Spice Route through the Indian Ocean. It’s a kaleidoscope of riches: piles of spices and herbs, handicrafts, clothing, and tempting sweets.
You can feel it floating in a ferry in the middle of the Bosphorus, the waterway running through this city of 15.5 million people, separating Europe from Asia. As the sun slips behind Byzantine-influenced domes and needlelike spires of the city’s magnificent mosques, they turn into silhouettes cut from the orange sky. Ancient streets come alive with lights and the call to prayer
