Istanbul — the only city standing on two continents

Istanbul is the only major city on Earth to span two continents, its European and Asian shores divided by the Bosphorus Strait and connected by bridges and a constant flow of ferries. That geography made it one of history's most fought-over cities: founded as Greek Byzantion in the 7th century BC, rebuilt as Constantine's "New Rome" in 330 AD, and besieged for centuries as the capital of the Byzantine Empire before Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II finally took it on 29 May 1453, ending an empire that had lasted 1,123 years.

Mehmed's first stop after the conquest was Hagia Sophia, Justinian's 6th-century cathedral, which he immediately rededicated as an imperial mosque. It later became a museum in 1935 under Atatürk's secularising reforms, and was reconverted to a mosque in 2020 — a single building that has tracked nearly every political shift in the city's 1,700-year history. The city's official Turkish name, Istanbul, only replaced Constantinople formally in the 1920s, though the word itself, derived from Greek for "to the city," had been in informal use for centuries.

What the two cameras show

Istanbul beyond the webcams

Hagia Sophia: a 6th-century cathedral turned mosque, then museum, then mosque again — the single building that best traces Istanbul's shifting identity.

Topkapi Palace: the Ottoman sultans' residence for centuries, perched where the Bosphorus, Golden Horn and Sea of Marmara all meet.

Grand Bazaar: one of the world's oldest covered markets, in continuous operation since the 15th century.

When to watch

Istanbul Airport, daylight hours: for the clearest view of continuous take-offs and landings at one of Europe's busiest hubs.

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Getting there: Istanbul's historic peninsula sits on the European side of the Bosphorus; Istanbul Airport lies about 35km north-west of the city centre, Turkey.