İstanbul is at Northwest of Turkey, where Europe meets Asia… Just a narrow waterway, Bosphorus, passing through İstanbul, divides the city into two and Black Sea lies on the North side where inland Marmara Sea lays on the South.
İstanbul functions as a bridge from Europe to Asia, thus sometimes it has functioned as a barrier from Asia to Europe as well.
The city has stood between religion, culture, and imperial powers for almost 2,500 years.
İstanbul has an area of 5712 square km, bigger than the Benelux countries and with a population of over 15.000.000, is one of the largest cities in the world.