Istanbul

Received from: Turkey
Category: Private swap
Date: July 2011

Very nice surprise from Turkey, another thank you card sent 2 months after the first one :).

Istanbul (historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople) is the largest city of Turkey. According to the address-based birth recording system of the Turkish Statistical Institute, the metropolitan municipality (province) of the city had a population of 13.26 million as of 2010, which is 17.98% of Turkey's population. The last census data from 2000 puts its proper population at 8.8 million. Istanbul is a megacity, as well as the cultural, economic, and financial centre of Turkey. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbour known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents.