Istanbul
08 AUGUST 2007 -- ISTANBUL, TURKEY: A man sits at the entrance to a hallway in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. The Kapali Carsi (Grand Bazaar) in Old Istanbul is one of the city's main attractions. It has been in continuous use as market and bazaar for more than one thousand years. Istanbul, a city of about 14 million people, and the largest city in Turkey, straddles the Bosphorus Straits between Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest cities in the world. It was once the center of the Eastern Roman Empire and was called Constantinople, named after the Roman Emperor Constantine. In 1453, Mehmet the Conqueror, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, captured the city and made it the center of the Ottoman Turkish Empire until World War I. After the war, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved and modern Turkey created. The capitol was moved to Ankara but Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) has remained the largest, most diverse city in Turkey. Photo by Jack Kurtz
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