As your plane careers around the sky aligning itself for descent into Istanbul, you begin to lose your bearings. Is that stretch of water you can see far below you now the Black Sea, or the Mediterranean? Is that bit of land Europe, or is it Asia? The confusion is a fitting introduction to this city of intensely mixed cultural history, still sitting comfortably on the edge of several worlds. Nowhere else does the word ‘disorientation’ – literally the inability to know east from west – feel quite so appropriate.
Shape-shifting, ever-adaptable Istanbul is the only city in the world to have been the capital of Christian and Islamic empires. It’s been pagan in its time too, and is now officially secular. It’s also the only city in the world to physically straddle two continents – standing half in Europe and half in Asia, the Bosphorus Strait elegantly slicing through its middle. This year it has held the title of European Capital of Culture, and yet it’s the chief city (but not the capital city) of Turkey – which isn’t actually a European country. The more one considers the paradoxes of Istanbul, the dizzier one gets. In every way, this city is exceptional.
Istanbul’s past (as Byzantium, then Constantinople, then Istanbul) is magnificent. Which has inevitably made the city’s recent centuries seem shabby by comparison. For much of the last hundred years or more Istanbul has been famed mostly for its lost glories and its historic sites; but today the city is suddenly on the up again. Arbiters-of-cool keep citing it as one of the most stylish and fashionable cities in the world. Expansion, investment and urban improvement are everywhere. Foreign visitors are pouring in – drawn by new luxury hotels, sophisticated nightlife and dazzling shopping. International businesses are setting up offices here, increasing job opportunities, which in turn are swelling the population (currently a staggering 15 million). There’s a building boom, new residential suburbs, and rising property values. Istanbul is buzzing. It’s young, prosperous, cosmopolitan and hip.
A bridge between worlds
If Istanbul is entering a new golden age, it will of course be just one of many. Amid all the energy of the present, the city’s past still stands serene. Beyond the new tree-lined boulevards, the chic cafes and the sumptuous shopping malls rise all the glittering palaces, dreamy domes and mighty monuments you’d expect of a city that for nearly 1,500 years served as a pivot of world history. Ancient and modern seem to meet just as easily here as east and west.
Istanbul started life more than 3,000 years ago, as a Mycenaean settlement. But it was from the seventh century BC that things really started hotting up. As Byzantium, the city became a fabulous cosmopolitan trading centre. So fabulous that when Emperor Constantine was looking for a new capital for his Roman Empire in the fourth century, he chose Byzantium. It even had seven hills, just like Rome. As Christian Constantinople, the city thrived for the next thousand years, becoming one of the world’s most vital intellectual centres.
When Mehmet the Conqueror claimed the place for the Islamic Ottoman Empire in 1453, he maintained the city’s cosmopolitan tradition, employing Greek advisors and encouraging Spanish and Jewish settlers. Now the city was so great that its new name became simply ‘The City.’ The city so significant that one need not specify its name (‘Istanbul’ is ancient Greek for ‘to the city.’ ‘Where are you going?’ ‘To the city.’ Istanbul).
In the early 20th century, the still-revered Mustafa Kemal Ataturk secularised Istanbul (see Who’s the daddy?). His determined Westernisation left Turkey with a key role to play in international politics. During the Cold War, Turkey was crucial to the West as the easternmost boundary of Nato. Now during the ongoing fight against global terrorism, Turkey is the West’s Muslim buddy, and serves as a model for forward-looking Islam. This is exemplified in the vibrant, liberal atmosphere of central Istanbul (although there are pockets of cultural conservatism elsewhere in the city). Today, as for so much of the past, Istanbul stands at the crux of things.
City of symbols
Everywhere in Istanbul there are physical metaphors of the city’s unique status. Every bridge that spans the glittery blue Bosphorus and each ferry that plies the narrow water between Europe and Asia underscores the city’s special ability to unite east and west. A different continent, a different culture, a different history – each is theoretically separated by just two minutes’ drive or 15 minutes afloat. Differences begin to melt to nothing when one can skim back and forth so easily.
Nothing in Istanbul more eloquently sums up the city’s significance than Haghia Sophia – a magnificent building put up in the sixth century as a Christian church, then converted into a Muslim mosque, and finally decreed a secular museum. It’s Istanbul in a nutshell. For a thousand years, Haghia Sophia had the largest dome in the world, and contained the world’s largest indoor space. It still serves as a model for all mosques, despite its Christian origins. Inside the vast gold-and-black interior, huge circular shields with florid Arabic calligraphy proclaim Islam from eight corners round the room. Beside them stand giant Christian seraphim (previously concealed beneath plaster). As the symbols of the faiths stand side by side in this now secular building, so do the religions peacefully co-exist in this officially secular city.
The vast majority of Istanbullus describe themselves as Muslim, regardless of how actively they practice their faith. To a Westerner, perhaps the most vivid sign that you are in an Islamic country is the exotic ezan or muezzin call-to-prayer that punctuates the day. Haunting and hypnotic, the elegantly sinuous call is just like churchbell-ringing in a Christian country. And it’s similarly ignored. In most districts, hardly anyone scurries off to pray at its behest. Certainly Istanbul has its ardent faithful, and even its tiny minority who would revoke the reforms of AtatŸrk and institute Sharia law. But while imbued with religious history and still seeing much religious practice, IstanbulÕs explicit aims of tolerance and diversity under a formal secularity are arguably what make this city such an eminently European place.
Sexual equality, while enshrined in law, could still improve a little in social practice, however. Istanbul’s women meet few obstacles in the business world (not even the glass ceiling apparently), but on the streets of the city there’s still a slight imbalance visible. On the average pavement, there are always more men than women. And you don’t see women alone. They are either with other women or on the arm of their husband or boyfriend. Around 40 percent wear the headscarf, but youÕll only see a very few in the most conservative districts covering their faces.
Istanbul is a young city – the youngest in Europe. The majority of its population today are under 30 years old. The heady combination of youth and prosperity is spawning all those chic bars and clubs, those glossy shopping malls, and inching the city toward ever more Westernisation (Istanbul is now so globalised that there are reputed to be more branches of McDonald’s here than in New York). The young are likely to further embrace new values of openness, individualism and sexual equality, finding ways to fuse them with their homeland’s long-held values of hospitality, group solidarity and respect for seniors. As it has done for millennia, Istanbul is sure to carry on melding different cultural traditions.
Who’s the daddy?
One of the first words to greet modern travellers to Istanbul is ‘Ataturk.’ Step out of Ataturk airport and you enter a city obsessed with this great 20th century statesman. His picture hangs in every public building, his face smiles from the coins in your hand, and billboards on street corners reverently display his image beneath the Turkish flag. He is, in short, like a kindly Big Brother (but thankfully Ataturk’s movie-star looks and model’s poise make him a welcome addition to any street scene).
In the 1920s, Turkey was utterly transformed by Mustafa Kemal 0 who later formally took the surname ‘Ataturk,’ meaning ‘father of the Turks.’ He abolished the king-like sultans, established secular democracy, and hugely improved the economy, legal system and transport infrastructure. He banned polygamy and enshrined gender equality in law. In an explicit culture-shifting move that few modern politicians would dare emulate, he firmly turned Turkey away from Arabic traditions and towards European ones. He outlawed the fez and the veil, and popularised Western dress (the suits he wears in all those photos are gorgeous enough to inspire any man). Amusingly, he also forced his civil servants to listen to Beethoven and take ballroom dancing lessons. And he permanently changed the alphabet in which Turkish is written from pretty Arabic to chiselled Roman.
The vast majority of Turks agree that Ataturk made Turkey the modern, progressive Muslim country it is today. He is universally venerated, and any mockery or defamation of him is against the law. In the style of America’s daily ‘Pledge of Allegiance,’ Turkish schoolchildren recite a patriotic oath every morning which includes the line: ‘Oh great Ataturk, I swear that I will constantly walk in the way which you created for me and toward the goal which you showed me.’ A mixture of Messiah, Great Leader, and genuinely beloved father figure, no outsider should come to Turkey without a passing familiarity with this exceptional man.
It is largely down to the work of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk that Turkey currently occupies its unique position as an eminently peaceable bridge between the Islamic world and the West. Ataturk’s legal, economic and cultural legacy, together with ongoing developments in the direction he established, are such that his country can even be considered for membership of the European Union. Turkey a member of Europe one day? Now there’s a thought that would have thrilled our Mustafa.
Eat and drink
Ciya, Guneslibahe Sokak, 43-48, Kadõkoy, 0090 216 336 30 13
Widely loved for more than 20 years, Ciya now sprawls across three restaurants on the same narrow street in Istanbul’s Asian half. The wonderfully creative menu of Turkish, Arabian, Balkan, Armenian and Jewish fare includes many long-forgotten dishes and unusual ingredients. Extremely high quality. Dinner about £18.
Hamdi, Tahmis Caddesi, Kalcin Sokak 17, Eminonu, 0090 212 528 0390
Set in a five-storey building crowned with a roof terrace offering glorious views of climbing minarets and the Bosphorus, Hamdi specialises in southeastern Turkish cuisine. Food is beautifully prepared and presented – bursting with colour, flavour, and freshness. Good service. Dinner about £20.
Poseidon, Kucuk Bebek, Cevdet Pasa Caddesi 58, Bebek, 0090 212 263 5199
With its large, elegant dining deck poised over the Bosphorus, this seafood-specialist restaurant has a yachting club ambience. The stylish and wealthy clientele drink in the gorgeous seaside vistas while tucking into the freshest fish. Dinner around £30.
Ulus 29, Kirechane Sokak 1 Adnan Saygun Caddesi, Ulus Parkõ, Ulus, 0090 212 265 6181
Set high on a hillside overlooking the Bosphorus, this busy yet romantic eatery with gorgeous Eastern decor is a fashionable haunt for the beautiful and powerful. The food – French, Italian and Turkish – is excellent, but it’s the spectacular view and the atmosphere you really come for. Dinner around £30.
“Pomegranate viagra. six times in the night!”
The fluorescent yellow sign sprouts from a brown, sugary mound studded with hazelnuts. A group of stylish middle-aged ladies look unimpressed and move on to the glistening piles of Turkish Delight.
Welcome to Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar, a bustling indoor market selling fine foods and exotic spices since the 1660s – adding zest and colour to the city’s kitchens, if not necessarily its bedrooms. A colourful place to shop for edible souvenirs, the centrally-located Spice Bazaar provides a perfect first taste of the Turkish market experience. Here you can warm up your haggling muscles and build your browsing stamina for Istanbul’s most unmissable shopping experience: the legendary Grand Bazaar.
A short stroll from the Spice Bazaar, the Grand Bazaar is the world’s largest covered market, and arguably the world’s oldest shopping mall. Traders started congregating here in the 1400s, and now the bazaar is home to more than 4,000 shops spread over 66 indoor alleys. It also contains banks, cafes, restaurants, a health centre, a police station and a post office – making the Grand Bazaar a mini-city in the heart of Istanbul. It has its own ‘city outskirts’ too – atmospheric back-alleys lined with workshops where you can glimpse artisans creating their wares.
Shopping in the Grand Bazaar plunges you into total sensory overload. Every imaginable exotic trinket, tea set, curl-toed slipper, florid ceramic, coloured lantern, leather handbag, fine pashmina, Persian carpet, designer watch and golden necklace is here. The passing landscape rapidly shifts from a glowing cavern hung with a hundred coloured lamps to an icy white studio stuffed with elegant bowls to a wall of intricate rugs to a cascade of leather backpacks.
As if absorbing this kaleidoscope wasn’t enough, you must simultaneously dodge the tide of shoppers and resist the super-friendly onslaught of the traders, who try to hook every passerby with exhortations to come in, look at this, share apple tea, buy something. Their friendliness is sales-motivated, certainly, but they also do want to chat and share tea, no strings attached. That’s just their culture – hospitable even in the midst of a teeming marketplace.
Be sure to visit the Grand Bazaar in an upbeat mood. Don’t shuffle in feeling tired or hungry – the place is too demanding for that. Drink coffee, have a snack, limber up, and dive in. If you really hate crowds, come mid-week when they’re thinnest. But if you want the thrill of being in the boisterous thick of it, jostle in here on a jam-packed Saturday. The bazaar is open 9am to 7pm every day except Sunday.
Where to stay
Swiss™tel The Bosphorus, Bayõldõm Caddesi 2, Macka-Besiktas, 0090 212 326 1100
Set in historic parkland beside the Bosphorus Strait, this sumptuous modern hotel offers supreme comfort and service. Panoramic views unfurl from the windows. There are 600 guest rooms, an array of conference rooms, an extensive spa, and mouth-wateringly good restaurants. Rooms from £115.
Marmara Taksim Hotel, Taksim Meydani, 0090 212 251 4696
Centrally located on busy Taksim Square, at the heart of Istanbul’s business district and glossy modern shopping area, the Marmara offers 377 spacious rooms in crisp colours plus extensive business and conference facilities. The best views are on the higher storeys. Rooms from £108.
The Ambassador Hotel, Divanyolu Ticarethane Sokak 19, Sultanahmet, 0090 212 512 0002
This excellent small hotel enjoys a great position in the heart of the historic Sultanahmet district. Its dining terrace gives jaw-dropping vistas of the Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia and the Hippodrome. Staff are friendly and service is very good. Full Turkish bath facilities. Rooms from £50.
Kybele Hotel, Yerebatan Caddesi 35, Sultanahmet, 0090 212 511 7766
Within walking distance of the main historic sites, this characterful little hotel makes a very memorable place to stay. Dozens of traditional coloured lamps festoon every ceiling. The large, atmospheric rooms are full of antiques, and breakfast is taken in a pretty courtyard full of candelabras and objets d’art. Rooms from £45.