Getting Oriented

Istanbul is a city divided. The Bosphorus—the waterway joining the Black Sea to the Mediterranean—separates the European side from the Asian side, and the European side is itself divided by the Golden Horn, an 8-km-long (5-mi-long) inlet that lies between historic Sultanahmet to the south and the New Town, known as Beyoglu, to the north. In t Beyoglu, the 14th-century Galata Tower dominates the hillside that rises north of the Golden Horn; just beyond, high-rise hotels and other landmarks of the modern city radiate out from Taksim Meydani, above the Bosphorus-side neighborhood of Besiktas. To the west, the European suburbs line the western shore of the Bosphorus. The Asian suburbs are on the eastern shore.