The old city of Istanbul is located on the Strait of Bosporus, which separates the Asia from the Europe, and connects the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea.
Named Byzantium during antiquity, it became known as Constantinople when it became the second capital of the Roman Empire under Constantine I (330).
Until 1928, the town officially called "Constantinople" and "Stamboul" meant only the Old Town (the historical peninsula).
The name was extended to the entire city under the modern form of "Istanbul" following the reform of language and writing of Turkish Atatürk in 1928 (the Revolution of signs).
Today the modern city is much larger and covers both European and Asian sides of the Bosphorus.
