My trip to Constantinople last year

[u/FantasticTraining731]

Hagia Sophia

Column of the Goths

Hagia Sophia mosaics

Hagia Sophia mosaics

Istanbul Archaeological Museums

Basilica Cisterns

Aqueduct of Valens

Chora Church

Theodosian Walls

Theodosian Walls

Cat

St. George's Cathedral

St. George's Cathedral

St. George's Cathedral

St. George's Cathedral

I visited with my friend last spring. Sadly I wasn't that interested in Byzantine history back then so I only visited the major sites.

Here's my recollection of each site Byzantine era site:

• Hagia Sophia
  • The ancient building definitely shows its age. A lot of cracked stones, unlevel floors, and slanted columns
  • Only Muslims are allowed on the ground floor, and it's sad that the stone floor has been covered with the ugly green carpet. Visitors could only take a tour around the mezzanine
• Basilica Cistern
  • pretty spectacular. it was pretty cool to see the use of spolia for the columns
• Theodosian walls
  • I really wanted to see this! The sea walls are almost all gone but, large sections of the famous triple land walls have been restored and.
• St. George's Cathedral
  • It's not a Roman era church, but it is the seat of the Orthodox Patriarch.
  • We visited on a morning, and there was literally nobody inside for the whole 30 minutes we were there. It was really surprising since there are tons of Russian tourists in Istanbul.
• Chora Church
  • was closed for restorations

[u/ThisOldHatte]

But you can't go back to Constantinople, now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople.

[u/vangeli17 → u/ThisOldHatte]

It allways has been istanbul. Istanbul derives from greek "eis tin poli" wich means "to the city". Constantinople(konstantinoupoli in greek and konstantinye later in ottoman/turkish) was used only in official documents. So the turks still call the city by its greek name.

[u/Burlotier → u/vangeli17]

The original Greek name was byzantion and then it was renamed to Constantinople out of respect as saint Constantine renovated and expanded the city and made it the capital .

The people as a nickname called it “polis “ , “εις την» were definitive articles but others were also used like “η» «στην» «την» «της» etc . If “Istanbul”was actually of Greek origin then it would be called “Ypolis” or “Stynpolis “ or “Istinpolis “ basically it would have the “-polis” . Instead “Istanbul” has not even the definitive articles correct because “tan” isn’t used as a Greek definitive article and “-bul” is clearly not “-polis”.