Information about Bosporus

This article is about the strait. For the surrounding neighborhoods of İstanbul, see Boğaziçi. For the university in Turkey, see Boğaziçi University. For the ancient Hellenic state, see Bosporan Kingdom.

Satellite image of the Bosporus, taken from the International Space Station in April 2004

View of the Bosporus and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge as seen from Rumelihisarı

The Bosporus or Bosphorus, also known as the Istanbul Strait, (Turkish: İstanbul Boğazı) (Greek: Βόσπορος) is a strait that forms the boundary between the European part (Rumelia) of Turkey and its Asian part (Anatolia). The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, it connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara (which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea). It is approximately 30 km long, with a maximum width of 3,700 metres at the northern entrance, and a minimum width of 700 metres between Kandilli and Aşiyan; and 750 metres between Anadoluhisarı and Rumelihisarı. The depth varies from 36 to 124 metres in midstream.

The shores of the strait are heavily populated as the city of Istanbul (with a metropolitan area in excess of 11 million inhabitants) straddles it.

Two bridges cross the Bosporus. The first, the Bosphorus Bridge, is 1074 metres long and was completed in 1973. The second, Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Bosphorus II) Bridge, is 1090 metres long, and was completed in 1988 about five kilometres north of the first bridge. A third road bridge is also being planned for one of seven locations designated by the Turkish Government. The location is being kept secret to avoid an early explosion in land prices.

Another crossing, Marmaray, is a 13.7 kilometre-long rail tunnel currently under construction and expected to be completed in 2008. Approximately 1,400 metres of the tunnel will run under the strait, at a depth of about 55 metres.

Associations

Panoramic view of the Bosporus from the hills of the Ulus neighbourhood

View of the Bebek neighbourhood from the hills of the Bosporus

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Yalıs in Arnavutköy on the Bosporus

The name comes from the Greek word Bosporos (Βόσπορος).^[1] Its etymology is from bous (βοῦς: ox)^[2] and poros (πόρος: passage, strait),^[3] thus meaning "oxen passage", which could reflect the older history of the region. The Greeks wrongly analysed it as "ox-ford" or "shallow sea ox passage"^[1] and associated it with the myth of Io's travels after Zeus turned her into an ox for her protection.^[5] It has also been thought to be a Thracian form of Phôsphoros (Φωσφόρος), 'light-bearing', an epithet of the goddess Hecate.

It is also said in myth that floating rocks known as the Symplegades or Clashing Rocks once crushed any ship that attempted passage of the Bosporus until the hero Jason obtained passage, whereupon the rocks became fixed, and Greek access to the Black Sea was opened.

Formation of the Bosporus

Main article: Black Sea deluge theory

The exact cause for the formation of the Bosporus remains the subject of vigorous debate among geologists. Thousands of years ago, the Black Sea became disconnected from the Aegean Sea. One recent theory (published in 1997 by William Ryan and Walter Pitman from Columbia University) contends that the Bosporus was formed about 5600 BCE when the rising waters of the Mediterranean/Sea of Marmara breached through to the Black Sea, which at the time (according to the theory) was a low-lying body of fresh water.

Some have argued that the resulting massive flooding of the inhabited and probably farmed northern shores of the Black Sea is thought to be the historic basis for the flood stories found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and in the Bible in Genesis, Chapters 6-9. On the other hand, there is also evidence for a flood of water going in the opposite direction, from the Black Sea into the Sea of Marmara around 7000 or 8000 BCE.

Ancient Greece, Rome, the Byzantines and the Ottoman Empire

"The Bosphorus with the Castles of Europe (Rumelihisarı) and Asia (Anadoluhisarı)". 19th century engraving by Thomas Allom.

St. Jerome's Vulgate translates the Hebrew besepharad in Obadiah, 1-20 as "Bosforus",^[6] but other translations give it as "Sepharad" (probably Sardis, but later identified with Spain).

As the narrowest point of passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the Bosporus has always been of great commercial and strategic importance. The Greek city-state of Athens in the 5th century BC, which was dependent on grain imports from Scythia, therefore maintained critical alliances with cities which controlled the straits, such as the Megarian colony Byzantium.

The strategic significance of the strait was one of the factors in the decision of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to found there in 330 AD his new capital, Constantinople, which came to be known as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. On May 29, 1453 it was conquered by the emerging Ottoman Empire. In fact, as the Ottoman Turks closed in on Constantinople, they constructed a fortification on each side of the strait, Anadoluhisarı (1393) and Rumelihisarı (1451). They later renamed the city Istanbul.

Strategic importance

The strategic importance of the Bosporus remains high, and control over it has been an objective of a number of hostilities in modern history, notably the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, as well as of the attack of the Allied Powers on the Dardanelles in 1915 in the course of the First World War. Several international treaties have governed vessels using the waters, including the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits, signed in 1936. In the conferences during World War II, Soviet leader Josef Stalin openly requested the concession of Soviet military bases on the Turkish Straits, even though Turkey was not involved in the war. This incident, coupled with Stalin's demands for the restitution of the Turkish provinces of Kars, Artvin and Ardahan to the Soviet Union (which were lost by Turkey with the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) but were regained with the Treaty of Kars in 1921) was one of the main reasons why Turkey decided to give up its principle of neutrality in foreign affairs and join NATO in 1952.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] In more recent years, the Turkish Straits have become particularly important for the oil industry. Russian oil, from ports such as Novorossyisk, is exported by tankers to western Europe and the U.S. via the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits.

Sightseeing

The cheapest way to experience Bosphorus in Istanbul would be to take one of the public ferries that travel between the Anatolian and Rumelian sides of the city. They depart every 45 minutes, and cost 1.3 YTL (about 0.80 Euros). There are also faster ferries that take off every 10 minutes, but the slower ones will give you more opportunity to see the city. One can also take a ride on a variety of tourist ships, from modern ones to Ottoman style ones.

Notes

1. ^ Entry: Βόσπορος at Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, 1940, A Greek-English Lexicon.
2. ^ Entry: βοῦς at Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, 1940, A Greek-English Lexicon.
3. ^ Entry: πόρος at Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, 1940, A Greek-English Lexicon.
4. ^ [Entry: Βόσπορος at Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, 1940, A Greek-English Lexicon.
5. ^ Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, 733.
6. ^ Obadiah, 1-20:
7. ^ Foreign Policy Research Institute: The Turkish Factor in the Geopolitics of the Post-Soviet Space (Igor Torbakov)
8. ^ Robert Cutler: Turkish-Soviet Relations
9. ^ Answers.com: Russia's relations with Turkey
10. ^ Today's Zaman: Against who and where are we going to stand? (Ali Bulaç)

* And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south. (KJV)
And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, all the places of the Chanaanites even to Sarepta: and the captivity of Jerusalem that is in Bosphorus, shall possess the cities of the south. (Douay-Rheims)
et transmigratio exercitus huius filiorum Israhel omnia Chananeorum usque ad Saraptham et transmigratio Hierusalem quae in Bosforo est possidebit civitates austri. (Vulgate)

External links

Google Maps link to Bosphorus

Coordinates:

The Bosporan kingdom or the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus was an ancient state, located in eastern Crimea and the Taman peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus.
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The Bosphorus Bridge, also called the First Bosphorus Bridge (Turkish: Boğaziçi Köprüsü or 1. Boğaziçi Köprüsü) is a bridge in Istanbul, Turkey spanning the Bosphorus strait (Turkish: Boğaziçi).
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Fatih Sultan Bridge, also known as the Second Bosphorus Bridge (in Turkish: Fatih Sultan Mehmet Köprüsü or 2. Boğaziçi Köprüsü), is a bridge in Istanbul, Turkey spanning the Bosphorus strait (Turkish: Boğaziçi).
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