Mondo Knows Facts
Istanbul has carried three famous names
It was Byzantium, then Constantinople, and became Istanbul officially only in the twentieth century Greek settlers founded Byzantium on the site, and Constantine refounded it as his capital in 330. The name Istanbul comes from a Greek phrase meaning to the city, which people used long before it became official. Turkey asked other countries to use it in 1930. It sits in Mondo's world geography collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
Many capitals have been renamed since independenceSalisbury became Harare, Lourenço Marques became Maputo and Léopoldville became KinshasaSeveral Indian cities reverted to local namesBombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai and Calcutta became Kolkata between 1995 and 2001Istanbul is the only major city spanning two continentsStraddling the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey, Istanbul connects Europe and Asia across a strategic waterway.The Caspian is named for a people long goneIts name comes from the Caspi, a group recorded in antiquity, not from any present-day nationGreenland's name was a recruiting toolThe name is usually credited to Erik the Red, who wanted settlers to join him thereThe Dardanelles has been a strategic waterway for millenniaThe 61 kilometre channel links the Aegean to the Sea of Marmara and is only a few kilometres wide
🗺️ World Geographyfact 197 of 200
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Tags: place-names, turkey, cities
Istanbul has carried three famous names: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- It was Byzantium, then Constantinople, and became Istanbul officially only in the twentieth century. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a world geography fact?
- Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.