Elite Hotels Turkey Hotel Overview

The Bosporus or Bosphorus, also known as the Istanbul Strait, (Turkish: İstanbul Boğazı or, for İstanbul's inhabitants, simply Boğaz; while the term Boğaziçi denotes those parts of the city with view of the strait) (Greek: Βόσπορος) is a strait that forms the boundary between the European part (Rumelia) of Turkey and its Asian part (Anatolia). The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, it connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara (which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea). It is approximately 30 km long, with a maximum width of 3,700 metres at the northern entrance, and a minimum width of 700 metres between Kandilli and Aşiyan; and 750 metres between Anadoluhisarı and Rumelihisarı. The depth varies from 36 to 124 metres in midstream.

The shores of the strait are heavily populated as the city of Istanbul (with a metropolitan area in excess of 11 million inhabitants) straddles it.

Two bridges cross the Bosporus. The first, the Bosphorus Bridge, is 1074 metres long and was completed in 1973. The second, Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Bosphorus II) bridge, is 1090 metres long, and was completed in 1988 about five kilometres north of the first bridge. A third road bridge is also being planned for one of seven locations designated by the Turkish Government. The location is being kept secret to avoid an early explosion in land prices.

Another crossing, Marmaray, is a 13.7 kilometre-long rail tunnel currently under construction and expected to be completed in 2008. Approximately 1,400 metres of the tunnel will run under the strait, at a depth of about 55 metres.

Hagia Sophia (Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία; Holy Wisdom), now known as the Ayasofya Museum, was the greatest Christian cathedral of the Middle Ages, later converted into an imperial mosque in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, and into a museum in 1935. It is located in Istanbul, Turkey, on the Turkish Thrace. It is regularly considered one of the greatest and most beautiful buildings in history. Its conquest by the Ottomans at the fall of Constantinople is considered one of the great tragedies of Christianity by the Greek Orthodox faithful.

The name comes from the Greek name Ἁγία Σοφία, a contraction of Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, meaning "Church of the Holy Wisdom of God". It is also known as Sancta Sophia in Latin and Ayasofya in Turkish. Although it is sometimes called "Saint Sophia" in English, or similar terms in other languages, it is not named after any saint named Sophia — the Greek word sophia means "wisdom."

It was constructed in five years, between 532 and 537, at the orders of Emperor Justinian I; and designed by architects Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles.

For almost 500 years the principal mosque of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia served as a model for many of the Ottoman mosques such as the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Rüstem Pasha Mosque.

Maiden's Tower was first built by the ancient Athenian general Alcibiades in 408 BC to control the movements of the Persian ships in the Bosphorus strait. Back then the tower was located between the ancient cities of Byzantion and Chalcedon. The tower was later enlarged and rebuilt as a fortress by the Byzantine emperor Alexius Comnenus in 1110 AD, and was rebuilt and restored several times by the Ottoman Turks, most significantly in 1509 and 1763. The most recent facelift was made in 1998. Steel supports were added around the ancient tower as a precaution after the 17 August 1999 earthquake.

Used as a lighthouse for centuries, the interior of the tower has been transformed into a popular café and restaurant, with an excellent view of the former Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman capital. Private boats make trips to the tower several times a day.

The Grand Bazaar (or Covered Bazaar, Kapalıçarşı in Turkish) in Istanbul is one of the largest covered markets in the world with more than 58 streets and 4,000 shops, and has between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. It is well known for its jewelry, pottery, spice, and carpet shops. Many of the stalls in the bazaar are grouped by type of goods, with special areas for leather coats, gold jewelry and the like. The bazaar contains two bedestans, or domed masonry structures built for storage and safe keeping, the first of which was constructed between 1455 and 1461 by the order of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. The bazaar was vastly enlarged in the 16th century, during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and in 1894 underwent a major restoration following an earthquake.

Technically, the correct translation of the Turkish name Kapalıçarşı is "Covered Bazaar" and not "Grand Bazaar", simply because the Turks do not call it "Grand Bazaar". In Turkish kapalı means "covered" and çarşı means "market" or "bazaar" (as in the Persian 'bazar', where the word originates from and in English spelled "bazaar".)

A fishing village until the early 1970s, Bodrum is built on the ruins of ancient Halicarnassus. It is now Turkey’s liveliest resort, attracting poets, singers, artists and package tourists. Its perfect harbour was colonized by ancient Greeks in the 11th century BC and the city later flourished under Persian rule. It was nominally the capital city of the satrapy of Caria; its location ensured the city enjoyed considerable autonomy.

It was here that the historian Herodotus (484–420 BC) was born, but Halicarnassus’s greatest glory was under Mausolus, who ruled on behalf of the Persians from 377 to 353 BC. When he died in 353 BC, his wife, Artemisia II of Caria, employed the ancient Greek architects Satyros and Pithios, and the four sculptors Bryaxis, Scopas, Leochares and Timotheus for to build a monument, a tomb to him. His tomb is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and was so well-known that it gave us the word “mausoleum”. Originally a temple-like structure decorated with reliefs and statuary on a massive base, only the foundations and a few pieces of sculpture now remain. After the brief tenure of the Knights of St John, who founded the Castle of St Peter in 1404, the city sank into obscurity. The castle and its town became known as Petronium, whence the modern name derives. Suleiman the Magnificent conquered Petronium for the Ottomans in 1522. Today, the sheltered anchorage is busy with luxury yachts and locally-built gulets used by seafaring holidaymakers.

Bodrum was the city of Halikarnassos in ancient times, an important port in the center of the old world, home to one of the wonders of the ancient world, the Mausoleum. Modern Bodrum is to Turkey, what Cannes is to the South of France.. It is everything and anything you want it to be, historic, interesting, relaxing, lively and within 10 minutes of unspoiled countryside.

An imposing Crusader Castle overlooks the harbor and the International Marina. When you have had enough of the many harbor-side bars, restaurants and historical sights, there is still a whole peninsula to explore. Mountains and green valleys, traditional villages and isolated beaches, all within view of the warm clear waters of the Aegean Sea.