Bosphorus
This article is about the strait; Bosphorus
is also a university in Turkey, whereas Cimmerian Bosporus was the ancient Hellenic state. |
Bosphorus - photo taken from International Space Station. April 2004 |
The
Bosphorus or
Bosporus, also known as
Istanbul Strait, (
Turkish:
Boğaziçi,
İstanbul Boğazı or just
Boğaz) (
Greek:
'όσπορος) (
English also:
Bosphorus) is a
strait that forms the boundary between the
European part (
Rumeli) of
Turkey and its
Asian part (
Anadolu). 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 (in excess of 13 million inhabitants) straddles it.
Two
bridges cross the Istanbul Strait. The first,
Bogazici (Bosphorus I) bridge, is 1074 meters long and was completed in
1973. The second,
Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Bosphorus II) bridge, is 1090 meters long, and was completed in
1988 about five kilometers 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 kilometer-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 meters.
|
View of Bosphorus featuring both European & Asian Sides of Istanbul. |
The name, means
ox passage or
cow-ford from the
Greek word Bosphorus ('όσπορος), it is associated with a
Greek myth about
Io's travels after Zeus turned her into an
ox for her protection.
It is also said in myth that floating rocks once crushed any ship that attempted passage of the Bosporus until the hero
Jason obtained passage by trickery, whereupon the rocks became fixed, and Greek access to the Black Sea was opened.
While the exact cause for the formation of the Bosphorus remains the subject of vigorous debate among geologists, one recent theory (first published in 1997 by William Ryan and Walter Pitman from
Columbia University) contends that the Bosphorus was formed about
5600 BC 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 the historic basis for the
flood stories found in the
Epic of Gilgamesh and in the
Bible in
Genesis, Chapters 6-9.
St.
Jerome's
Vulgate translates the Hebrew
besepharad in Obadiah, 1-20 as "Bosforus", 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 Bosphorus 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. This city was later renamed
Istanbul when, on
May 29 1453, it was conquered by
Mehmed II of the
Ottoman Turks and became the capital of the
Ottoman Empire. In fact, as the Ottoman Turks closed in on Constantinople, they constructed a fortification on each side of the strait,
Anadoluhisari (
1393) and
Rumelihisari (
1451).
The strategic importance of the Bosphorus 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.
*
Obadiah,
1-20:
**
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)
