The following Web sites are good sources of information on Istanbul.
Focus Multimedia, a site in Australia, has information on France, Italy, Lebanon and Turkey of interest to travelers. The section on Istanbul describes the palaces, mosques, museums, monuments,art, culture and entertainment, shopping and the environs of Istanbul. If you are closer to Turkey than to Australia, you can get the same information about Istanbul from Ege University in Izmir.
The Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC, has a comprehensive site on Turkey. Its page on Istanbul has, in addition to a listing of touristic attractions, information on concert halls and cultural centers, libraries, places of worship, and more.
Barnes and Nobles, travel books, gives online information on major cities of the world, including Istanbul.
At Time Out Istanbul, you can take a virtual stroll through Istanbul by choosing directions like North, East, etc. at each page. This site is still under construction, so only a few neighborhoods can be explored.
The International Istanbul Festivals site gives detailed information on the annual Music, Jazz, Theatre, Film, Photography festivals, as well as the Biennial Festival.
The Sabanci Colection site displays some of the artwork that is displayed at the mansion of the Turkish industrialist Mr. Sabanci. This web site also has gives good background information Turkish paintings, calligraphy, porcelain and sculpture.
The Topkapi Museum site offers pictures of the holdings of the Ottoman Palace, views of the buildings, and information on its history.
Two web sites have much to offer to those interested in traditional Istanbul houses: one is about the mansions (yalis) of Istanbul on the Bosphorus (at the homepage of Handan Oz, which you should check out for its excellent pages on other topics of Turkish culture), the other is the electronic version of Turkish Style, a beautiful book on Turkish dwellings.
Istanbul is a city that inspired many songs. We found three of them on the Web, with lyrics in English: Istanbul (Not Constantinople); She Took My Soul in Istanbul, I am listening to Istanbul. You can listen to some Istanbul songs and other samples of Turkish music at Turknet.
You can view photographs of Istanbul in the last century at the Middle East Photograph Archive at the University of Chicago: see the collections on Mosques in Istanbul, and Bosphorus and Golden Horn...then compare them with pictures of present day Istanbul at the Turkey in Pictures site at Ege University in Turkey.
If you are traveling to Istanbul in the coming days, you may want to check out the
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/TUXX0014
or
http://www.business-with-turkey.com/weather.htm
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