
- One of the things Istanbul is known for is the packs of wild dogs roaming the streets that have resisted all governmental efforts to remove them.
- The Turkish word for Bosphorus (the river that runs through Istanbul) is the same as the word for "throat."
- There was an Alphabet Revolution of 1928, where Ataturk declared that Turkish would now use the Latin alphabet. There are 29 letters in the modern Turkish alphabet, 8 of which are vowels.
- The Turkish film industry in the middle of the 20th century was the second largest in the world. (India was first.)
- The population of Istanbul grew rapidly during the 20th century. In the 1920s, it was about half a million. By 1960, it was around a million. By 2000, it was over ten million.
- You can tell whether you're in the East or West area of Istanbul by how they discuss the events of May 29, 1453 (when the Ottoman army took over the area) - to Westerners, it's the Fall of Constantinople; to Easterners, it's the Conquest of Istanbul.