Istanbul embraces two continents, one arm reaching out to Asia, the other to Europe. Through the city's heart, the Bosphorus strait, courses the waters of the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn. The former capital of three successive empires - Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman - today Istanbul honors and preserves the legacy of its past while looking forward to its modern future.
Indeed, it is Istanbul's variety that fascinates its visitors. The museums, churches, palaces, great mosques, bazaars and sights of natural beauty seem inexhaustible. As you recline on the shores of the Bosphorus at sunset, contemplating the red twilight reflected in the windows on the opposite shore, you understand, suddenly and profoundly, why so many centuries ago settlers chose to build on this remarkable site. At times such as these, you feel that Istanbul is truly one of the most glorious cities in the world.

On a spot of land at the confluence of the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and the Marmara Sea, stands Topkapi Palace, a maze of buildings at the center of the Ottoman Empire between the 15th and 19th centuries. In these opulent surroundings the sultans and their court lived and governed.
Built in the mid-19th century by Sultan Abdülmecit I, the facade of Dolmabahçe Palace stretches for 600 meters along the European shore of the Bosphorus. Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, died in Dolmabahçe on November 10,1938.
In the 19th century, Sultan Abdülaziz built the Beylerbeyi Palace, a fantasy in white marble amid magnolia filled gardens, on the Bosphorus's Asian shore used as the Sultan's summer residence. In addition to the State Pavilions at Yildiz Palace, the compound includes a series of pavilions and a mosque. It was completed by Abdülhamit II at the end of the 19th century.