Istanbul is the largest city of Turkey which is considered its heart in terms of culture, economy and history. In Eurasia it is referred to as the transcontinental city having the historical and commercial centre lying in the side of continental Europe and almost a third of its masses living in the Eurasia’s Asian side. It has a population of around 14.4 million. Hence it is called as the largest urban agglomeration of Europe and the biggest in the middle east as well as the 6th largest city around the globe. The area of the city is 5,343 square kilometers (2,063 sq mi). This city was established on the Sarayburnu promontory in 660 BC by the name of Byzantium which as a city now called as Istanbul. It stabled into one of the highly important cities of the past.
For around 16 centuries after the redevelopment of Constantinople or the New Rome in around 330 AD, it was the imperial capital of the Byzantine and Roman, Ottoman and Latin empires. It was also significant in the development of Christianity in the Byzantine and Roman times prior to the conquering of the city by the Ottomans in 1453 and it changed into an Islamic city with the sea of the Ottoman Caliphate. The idea location of the city present along the historic silk road, rail networks towards Middle East and Europe and the sea route between Mediterranean and Black Sea have enabled in the growth of an eclectic population though less since the development of the Turkish Repubilc in 1923. The population of the city has been raised to 10 times since 1950s since the people from Anatolia have moved to the metropolis and city limits have increased to accommodate them. By the end of the 20th century, the art festivals were organized whereas the infrastructure was improved which led to the production of a complex transformation network. Around 11.6 million foreign visitors came to the city in 2012 which was two years after the city was named as a European Capital of Culture.