Introduction
İstanbul
[key], city and metropolitan muncipality, capital of İstanbul
prov., NW Turkey, on both sides of the Bosporus at its entrance into the Sea
of Marmara. Since 2004 the metropolitan municipality and province have been
coterminous. Its name was officially changed from Constantinople to
İstanbul in 1930; before a.d. 330 it was known as Byzantium.
(For the history of the city, see Byzantium and Constantinople.)
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