The Story of Bosphorus Strait and Our Tour

Having a Turkish tea with a Bosphorus view

“Bosphorus” literally means cow passage or ox passage. It exactly means Oxford. Bosphorus is the ancient name of the strait that connects The Marmara sea at the south to the Black Sea at the north.

According to the Greek myth; Zeus, God of the Gods fell in love with a pretty girl named Io. He started to spend more time with her but Hera, wife of Zeus and Goddess of marriage was suspicious about him leaving Olympos constantly! She was always jealous and watched Zeus.

Again one day while Zeus was together with Io, he suddenly saw that Hera was coming! That scared him so much. However, he just converted her into a cow! When Hera saw the cow, she said to Zeus, What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in Olympos? Zeus said nothing first! Then He added, my dear! I’m just petting this beautiful cow. This answer didn’t satisfy Hera, besides she cursed Io and sent a gadfly that made her insane! She escaped from the fly and ran, ran but still, the gadfly was following her.

Though she jumped into the Agean sea which would later be named as Ionian sea. Nevertheless, she swam all the way from the Greek side of the Aegean Sea to the Northeast and passed the Dardanelles strait. After all, she entered the Marmara sea and swam towards the Bosphorus strait all the way. Finally, she turned back to the Marmara sea, went into the Golden Horn. There she reached to the land. She was pregnant by Zeus. And she gave birth to a son called Byzas who later would be the king and establish a city there and named it Byzantium.

Byzantium is one of the oldest names of modern Istanbul. Also, this water channel was named Bosphorus after her which means “cow passage”. Because of she swam all the way throughout this water channel.

Bosphorus Tour

One of the best activities to do in Istanbul is the Bosphorus cruise that starts from the Golden Horn. Golden Horn is an inlet and a part of the Bosphorus Strait.

During the Bosphorus cruise along the way, it’s possible to see the most beautiful houses, especially those wooden ones on the shore which are very special in terms of Architecture, esthetical beauty, decoration, as well as design. These wooden houses on the seashore are called “Yalı” in Turkish. This word comes from the Greek “Yalos” which means wooden house above the sea! Also, palaces from the Ottoman period such as Dolmabahçe Palace, Çırağan Palace, Beylerbeyi can be seen. The palaces were built during the 19th century with Baroque and Rococo styles by an Armenian architect family named Balyans: Nikogos Balyan, Salkis Balyan, and Garabet Balyan.

Enjoy the sunset on the Bosphorus tour

While at the European shore of the Bosphorus there are palaces, historic buildings, and castles, on the other side, at the Asian shore, there are mostly residential areas and more green areas. The most popular part of Istanbul is the European side, which was the center of the old city where Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Ottomans founded their capitals. For example, the Ottomans built many imperial buildings, especially imperial mosques that are pearls of the city, (Byzantines) Romans built many massive churches and civil structures. Buildings such as Hagia Sophia, Hagia Irene, Pantokrator Church and Theodosion City wall. This is one reason why Istanbul is a very special city with a lot of history. Besides the most interesting fact is it’s the only city which was founded on two different continents, European and Asian continents.

We are the luckiest people on the earth since we can pass from one continent to the other in 20 minutes without stupid visa and passport issues. It is so much fun and culture to be in this city for the travelers!