Mustafa Ozcan for National Post – February 11, 2016: In this city, where Europe and Asia meet, empires were born, ruled and died. Names like Constantine the Great, Justinian, Theodora, Suleiman the Magnificent and even Florence Nightingale litter its history. It was the capital of the ever-elusive Eastern Roman Empire and the mighty Ottoman Empire that controlled a vast region from Yemen to Hungary. Pillaged by Crusader armies, laid siege by Arabs, conquered by Turks, shaken by massive earthquakes and flooded with millions of people from rural Turkey over the last 40 years, Istanbul has held on to its unique location, beauty, and glorious past.
When I was a young child in the early 70s, Istanbul had a population of 1.5 million people. Life was slow and leisurely. The city seemed to have forgotten its past. But today’s Istanbul is a mega-city of 15 million inhabitants, tourists pour in daily from cruise ships and airports; a dizzying pace has taken over, along with traffic gridlock, bustling bazaars and towering skyscrapers bent on chipping away its classical charm.
This contrast is on display at the Aga Khan Museum’s most recent exhibit: “A City Transformed: Images of Istanbul Then and Now.”
More at the source: National Post
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