NAMED FOR AN EMPEROR

NAMED FOR AN EMPEROR

Many years ago, a Roman emperor named Constan­tine decided to move the
capital of his empire from Rome to a city called Byzantium. Byzantium
was in the country we now call Turkey. Constantine made the city bigger,
and the city was called Constanti­nople, which means “city of
Constantine.

Later, the people of Turkey fought the people of Constantinople and
defeated them. The Turks called the city Istanbul. But people in other
countries still called it Constantinople.

So the city had two names until 1930, when it was officially named
Istanbul. “Istanbul is a Turkish word meaning “to the city.

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey and one of the oldest cities in
the world. You still hear people call it Constantinople, but its real
name now is Istanbul.

Istanbul, Turkey

This old drawing shows how Constantinople looked hundreds of years ago.