istanbul - C2C

4
Today the historical peninsula is the most
beautiful part of İstanbul, and is strategically well
placed. The city is surrounded by a seascape
peppered with distant islands, and this, together
with the Golden Horn (Haliç), the estuary that
thrusts into the land along the peninsula, make
İstanbul a unique place – and, throughout its
long history, a city that many desired to conquer.
But the desire to possess the city cannot
be explained only by its strategic position or
unsurpassed beauty; it has a different attraction,
a mystical magnetism that drew states, empires
and great conquerors towards it. This attraction
led to a long history of conflict, conquest and