Just the name conjures up visions of the east. I have always been fascinated by this city since learning about Constantinople in grade school social studies. Historically a physical and temporal link between Christian civilization as the power centre of the eastern Roman Empire and the Islamic civilization of the Ottoman Empire, it now straddles the modern permutations of these civilizations concurrently rather than sequentially. The citizens embraced Ataturk's secularization and hold him in reverence to this day ... (more)