Beitou (北投) is a district of Taipei City at the foot of Yangmingshan (陽明山 or Yangming Mountain), a collection of mountain peaks that make up Yangminshan National Park. These include Seven Star Mountain (七星山 or Qixingshan), a dormant volcano that last erupted around 700,000 years ago.
Xinbeitou (新北投), the hot spring village around Xinbeitou MRT station, occupies a lush valley that is home to 1200 species of plants, 110 species of bird, and 160 varieties of butterflies.
Beitou Thermal Valley (also called Beitou Geothermal Valley or Hell Valley) is a second, highly acidic “green sulfur” hot spring that is a major tourist attraction in Beitou and the source of the hot creek running through Beitou Hot Spring Park.
The spring water is high in radium, which in the past underwent a corrosive reaction with the andesite rocks on the river bed about 150 meters downstream, creating layers of cream and white diamond-shaped crystals named Hokutolite or “Beitou stone”, ...
Taksim Square forms a central open plaza in Istanbul, historically linked to the city’s water distribution system and later transformed into a major public gathering space.
The Republic Monument, completed in the 1920s, commemorates the founding of the Turkish Republic and stands as a focal landmark amid the surrounding avenues and nearby Gezi Park.
From the square, İstiklal Avenue extends as a broad pedestrian thoroughfare once known as the Grand Rue de Pera, the cosmopolitan spine of the nineteenth-century European quarter. Lined with former embassies, ornate residential buildings, theaters, and commercial spaces, the avenue retains its role as one of Istanbul’s most visited corridors, featuring the historic tram line, cafés, bookstores, and the distinctive Gothic Revival façade of the Church of St. Anthony of Padua.
Descending toward the Golden Horn, the streets enter the Galata district, a former Genoese trading colony whose medieval layout of narrow lanes and steep slopes remains ...
Hagia Irene, known as the Church of Holy Peace, stands as the oldest surviving Byzantine church in Istanbul, a quiet sentinel within the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace.
Long before the grandeur of Hagia Sophia rose nearby, this sacred space served as the principal church of the newly founded Constantinople, traditionally commissioned by Emperor Constantine the Great in the early fourth century.
It witnessed the city’s transformation from an ancient Greek colony into the eastern capital of the Roman Empire and briefly held the role of cathedral until Hagia Sophia’s completion in 360.
Destroyed by fire during the Nika Revolt of 532, it was rebuilt by Emperor Justinian I as a majestic domed basilica. A devastating earthquake in 740 led to further restoration under the iconoclast emperor Constantine V, who left behind one of its most striking features: a simple yet powerful mosaic cross on a gold ground in the apse, a rare surviving example of Iconoclastic art.
Unlike nearly every other ...
The Blue Mosque, officially the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultan Ahmet Camii), is an iconic 17th-century Ottoman mosque in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district. Renowned for its stunning blue Iznik tiles and six slender minarets, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site within Istanbul’s Historic Areas.
It remains an active mosque, drawing worshippers and tourists for its architectural grandeur and historical significance.
Commissioned by Sultan Ahmed I (1603–1617), it was built between 1609 and 1616 by architect Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, a student of Mimar Sinan. Intended to rival Hagia Sophia (directly opposite), it symbolized Ottoman power and piety after military setbacks.
The mosque sparked controversy for its six minarets, equaling Mecca’s Masjid al-Haram, resolved by adding a seventh minaret to Mecca.
Completed just before Ahmed I’s death at age 27, it has since been a centerpiece of Istanbul’s skyline. Restorations in the 19th and 21st centuries preserved its ornate interiors.
The mosque ...
