Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City

Available for the first time since its original publication in 1973, this classic guide to Istanbul by Hilary Sumner-Boyd and John Freely is published in a completely revised and updated edition. Taking the reader on foot through Istanbul, the authors describe the historic monuments and sites of what was once Constantinople and the capital, in turn, of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, in the context of the great living city. Woven throughout are anecdotes, secret histories, hidden gems, and every major place of interest the traveler will want to see. Practical and informative, readable and vividly described, this is the definitive guide to and story of Istanbul, by those who know it best.

Hilary Sumner-Boyd (1910-1976) was professor of humanities at Robert-College-Bosphorus University. His magisterial work, The Seven Hills of Constantinople: A Study of the Byzantine and Turkish Monuments of the City, was unpublished at the time of his death in 1977 and is now being prepared for publication by Bosphorus University Press.

John Freely (1926 - 2017) was born in New York and joined the US Navy at the age of seventeen, serving during the last two years of World War II. He had a PhD in physics from New York University and did post-doctoral studies in the history of science at Oxford. He was for many years professor of physics at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, where he taught physics and the history of science. He wrote more than forty books, including Light from the East: How the Science of Medieval Islam Helped Shape the Western World (I.B.Tauris, 2010), The Grand Turk, Storm on Horseback, Children of Achilles, The Cyclades,The Ionian Islands (all I.B.Tauris), Crete, The Western Shores of Turkey, Strolling through Athens, Strolling through Venice and the bestselling Strolling through Istanbul (all Tauris Parke Paperbacks).