The city 'Istanbul' Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The city 'Istanbul' - Essay Example Turkey has a distinguished history and culture that tourists may learn about in their visit to this precious country and especially Istanbul city. The history of Istanbul dates back to the prehistoric times where about 300,000 years ago, Istanbul gave her land for settlement in the Yarimburgaz cave near Kuck Cekmece lake (Istanbul guide, n.p.). Another interesting piece of history about Istanbul is the conquering of the city by Sultan Mehmet in 1453 (Istanbul guide, 1997). Recently, Istanbul bears the prestige of developing and implementing the modern city plans that have remarkable sites and effective transportation and housing. Having no congestion and traffic jams, Istanbul is considered as the city of time. Istanbul boasts of the fact that the historical Istanbul and present have remarkably close similarities in both architecture of the buildings and preservation of the old but elegant structures. Turkey has many elegant landmarks to see like the Beyazit Tower, City walls Galata tower among others. Istanbul also has beautiful parks such as Arboretum, Beykoz woods, Cekmece lakes and Emirgan woods among others. These parks will take a tourist to the state of peace and oneness with nature. In the past half, a century, Istanbul has experienced extensive swatches of urban hinterland build upon industry, housing and infrastructure projects (Bowden, 52). Istanbul is particularly colorful in terms of its culture and art. It is home to the music and opera festivals held annually since the Turkish government policy of the 1930s to institutionalize and teach performance of polyphonic music and opera (Wikipedia, n.p). Apart from the annual festivals, orchestras, concerts and jazz legends continue to entertain and display culture in theaters all year round. Istanbul is also famous for hosting international artists. The Pera museum has hosted exhibitions of the world’s famous artist and has a remarkable reputation. Apart from the Pera museum,