located on the Bosphorus Strait, and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country.It extends both on the European (Thrace ) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus.

   The city’s over-abundance of important historic buildings and exciting new art galleries and museums provides visitors with more than enough to see during the day, but it’s at night that the place swings into high-velocity, mega-stylish action.

   Variety in Istanbul is really charming the visitors. It is serving infinite nuances with its museums, churches, palaces, mosques, bazaar places and natural beauties. When you lean against backside at the coast of the strait, you feel Istanbul as "center of the world" and understand why people select this extraordinary place centuries before with watching the reflection of the red at sun set from the houses at the coast.

   With a new regulation in city planning on April 2008, Istanbul province is divided into 39 districts (was 32), each of them has a local municipality elected by the people living in the neighborhoods belonging to that district.

In its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital city of the Roman Empire (330–395), the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). The city was chosen as joint European Capital Of Culture for 2010. The historic areas of Istanbul were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.