page_title: Golden Horn
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Golden Horn / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Helikopteraufnahme von Istanbul: Galata-Viertel und historische HalbinselEnglish: Istanbul - aerial overview about historical Sultanahmet and Galata district
context_page_description: The Golden Horn, also known by its modern Turkish name, Haliç, is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey.
  As a natural estuary that connects with the Bosphorus Strait at the point where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, the waters of the Golden Horn help define the northern boundary of the peninsula constituting "Old Istanbul", the tip of which is the promontory of Sarayburnu, or Seraglio Point. This estuarial inlet geographically separates the historic center of Istanbul from the rest of the city, and forms a horn-shaped, sheltered harbor that in the course of history has protected Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other maritime trade ships for thousands of years.
  While the reference to a "horn" is understood to refer to the inlet's aerial silhouette, the significance of the designation "golden" remains more obscure, with historians believing it to refer to either the riches brought into the city through the bustling historic harbor located along its shores, or to romantic artistic interpretations of the rich yellow light blazing upon the estuary's waters as the sun sets over the city.
context_section_description: Archaeological records show a significant urban presence on and around the Golden Horn dating back to at least the 7th century BC, with smaller settlements going as far back as 6700 BC as confirmed by recent discoveries of ancient ports, storage facilities, and fleets of trade ships unearthed during the construction works of the Yenikapı subway station and the Marmaray tunnel project.
  Indeed, the deep natural harbor provided by the Golden Horn have always been a major economic attraction and strategic military advantage for inhabitants of the area, and the Eastern Roman colonizers that established Nova Roma on top of the then-current city of Byzantium, and what afterwards became, Constantinople, and in the 20th century, Istanbul, were no different.
  The Byzantine Empire had its naval headquarters there, and walls were built along the shoreline to protect the city of Constantinople from naval attacks. At the entrance to the Horn on the northern side, a large chain was pulled across from Constantinople to the old Tower of Galata to prevent unwanted ships from entering.  Known among the Byzantines as the Megàlos Pyrgos (meaning "Great Tower" in Greek), this tower was largely destroyed by the Latin Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. In 1348, the Genoese built a new tower nearby which they called Christea Turris (Tower of Christ), now called Galata Tower.
  There were three notable times when the chain across the Horn was either broken or circumvented. In the 10th century the Kievan Rus' dragged their longships out of the Bosphorus, around Galata, and relaunched them in the Horn; the Byzantines defeated them with Greek fire. In 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, Venetian ships were able to break the chain with a ram. In 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, having failed in his attempt to break the chain with brute force, instead used the same tactic as the Rus'; towing his ships across Galata over greased logs and into the estuary.
  After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II resettled ethnic Greeks along the Horn in the Phanar (today's Fener). Balat continued to be inhabited by Jews, as during the Byzantine age, though many Jews decided to leave following the takeover of the city. This area was repopulated when Bayezid II invited the Jews who were expelled from Spain to resettle in Balat.
  In 1502, Leonardo da Vinci produced a drawing of a single-span 240-metre (790 ft) bridge over the Golden Horn as part of a civil engineering project for Sultan Bayezid II. Leonardo's drawings and notes regarding this bridge are currently displayed at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia in Milan, Italy. While the original design was never executed, the vision of Leonardo's Golden Horn Bridge was resurrected in 2001, when a small footbridge based on Leonardo's design was constructed near Ås in Norway by Vebjørn Sand.
  Until the 1980s, the Horn was polluted with industrial waste from the factories, warehouses, and shipyards along its shores. It has since been cleaned, and the local fish, wildlife, and flora have been largely restored.
  Nowadays, the Golden Horn is settled on both sides, and there are parks along each shore. The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce is also located along the shore, as are several Muslim, Jewish and Christian cemeteries. Other institutions along the Horn's banks include museums, congress and cultural halls, supporting facilities of the Turkish Navy, and campuses of various universities.
  Today, the Horn's history and natural environment make it a popular tourist attraction in Istanbul, visited by 10 million international vacationers annually.
caption: An aerial view of Galata (foreground), the Historic Peninsula (background), and the new Galata Bridge, which straddles the Golden Horn and, connects its two shores at the point where it meets the Bosphorus (off the picture, left) and the Sea of Marmara (behind the Historic Peninsula). Seraglio Point is located at the eastern tip of the Historic Peninsula (center, left). The Princes' Islands are along the horizon, at upper left.[2]
exif: {"Image Make": "CASIO COMPUTER CO.,LTD.", "Image Model": "EX-Z1080", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.2", "Image DateTime": "2010:05:15 02:08:01", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "276", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, 22, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 16, 131, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "832", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8467", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "1220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:09:06 16:39:34", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:09:06 16:39:34", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "CrCbY", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "51200/9747", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "79/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0010", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "912", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "684", "EXIF FileSource": "0", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0/0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}