STANBULSTANBUL
The Blue Mosque is just so beautiful.
Embracing two continents, one arm reaching out to Asia, the other to Europe, Istanbul's variety fascinates its visitors. The museums, churches, palaces, great mosques, bazars and sights of natural beauty seem inexhaustible. On a spot of land at the confluence of the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and the Marmara Sea stands the Topkapi Palace*, the center of the Ottoman Empire between the 15th and 19th centuries. The Archaeological Museum includes the celebrated Alexander Sarcophagus among its treasures of antiquity. The Museum of the Ancient Orient displays artifacts from the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hatti and Hittite civilizations. The dome of the Basilica of St. Sophia (now called the Ayasofya Museum) rises 55 meters above the ground and its diameter spans 31 meters. Built by Constantine the Great and reconstructed by Justinian in the 6th century, it is unquestionably one of the finest buildings of all time.
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