Gaps of the Gods: The Bosporus & Dardanelles Straits

The boundary between Europe and Asia can be unclear in places, but one place where the border is the most visible is at the Turkish Straits: the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. For millennia, these two waterways have been central to nations like Troy, Persia, Byzantium, and the Ottomans. Together, we'll learn about the geography, geology, and history of these straits. Let's Explore!

CHAPTERS:
• 0:00 Intro
• 0:28 Basic Geography
• 1:35 Geology
• 2:20 Early History
• 4:16 Rome, Byzantium & the Ottomans
• 5:13 The Straits Question
• 6:03 The Region Today
• 6:46 Bridges and Tunnels
• 7:49 Conclusion

Notes:

The names Istanbul and Constantinople (or its Turkish equivalent "Konstantiniyye") were both used in the Ottoman Era, with the latter usually used by the government.

Sources:

• Ryan, William et. al. (1997). "An Abrupt Drowning of the Black Sea Shelf"
• "Noah's Not So Big Flood". Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute
• History of the Sedimentary Infilling of Yarimburgaz Cave, Turkey: William R. Farrand and Jill P. McMahon 1997
• Straits Traffic: Turkish ministry of transport and infrastructure

Creative Commons Image credits:

Marmara Region: The_Emirr, CC BY 3.0
Anatolian Plate: Mikenorton, CC BY-SA 3.0
Earthquake: 최광모, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sediments: Hannes Grobe/AWI, CC BY 3.0
Yarımburgaz Cave: CeeGee, CC BY-SA 4.0
Petralona Skull: Nadina, CC BY-SA 3.0
Hattusa: Verity Cridland, CC BY 2.0
Hisarlik: Jorge Láscar, CC BY 2.0
Ilios: Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0
Xerxes: درفش کاویانی, CC BY 3.0
Bosporus Map: Krorokeroro & Kaidor, CC BY-SA 3.0
Diadokhoi: Ian Mladjov, CC BY 4.0
Rome map: Cristiano64, CC BY-SA 3.0
Istanbul Canal map: Randam, CC BY-SA 4.0
Eurasia Tunnel: Sadrettin, CC BY-SA 4.0

[jreiland]

Didn’t Napoleon say something to the effect of Constantinople being a natural capital if the entire world were a single state

[Gameinger]

I can't get over how small this channel is in comparison to its quality, this is beyond many modern documentaries, you get to the point quickly whilst also being entertaining, and cover topics that aren't often covered. This was fascinating, keep it up!

[gardist]

5:10
Istanbul was an alternative name to the official name of Konstantiniyye during the Ottoman Empire era. The name only fully switched to Istanbul after the Republic of Turkey was founded.

[jag]

*random YT recommendation with 1.4k views*

*description actually cites sources, and a decent amount of them too*

aight guess i'm subscribing

[wisdomaxolotl]

5:12 People just liked it better that
There is a surprising amount of quality here for so few people. Hopefully this is just the beginning!

[sams]

The modern city of Istanbul has grown a lot just in the last twenty years. The old city districts of the Golden Horn, Galata, and others are quite small in comparison. Living here you can see the population and construction growth every day

[just_the_letter_a]

Fell in love with your content. I also really appreciate the people in the comments that add more to the video

[beverlyreiner-baillargeon]

I love history and your video's are always very enlightening. Thanks

[papazataklaattiranimam]

Turks indeed had a decisive role in triggering historical major events like the Migration Period, Crusades, Age of Discovery as well as ending the Middle Ages with the conquest of Constantinople, fall of the Roman Empire.

[lucrehulk]

Constantinople was kept as Konstantiniyye under the Ottoman Empire only changing to Istanbul in the 1900s

[nenel_]

Another quality upload. Looking forward to watch the next video.😃😃

[AlbertEinstein-wk]

Bro's channel a gem. I've seen today and subscribed it.

[grubbinvgm]

One other thing to mention about Troy/Ilion/Wiusiya: in ancient times, all the farmland now northeast of Hisarlik wasn’t there. Instead, Troy was on the shore of a large and sheltered bay. That made it even more ideally positioned for controlling trade through, across, and out of the straits!

[luisaugusto]

2:15 beautiful species, Mimachlamys varia.

[clarices.]

It was 15 million in 2015, it's over 23 million in 2023. The population is higher than Moscow.

[ArdaSReal]

I was hoping for this video, litterily yesterday i thought about it

[NeroPiroman]

i remember seeing in a documentary a few years ago that tectonic activity split the bosphorus as well, so thats another posibility

[Paraglidecrete]

Dardanelles is related to the word Brussels . Dardanelles is a compound word from Dardanos and Elle .

[sinancanyucel]

Unfortunately, there are some mistakes in your text. The name Istanbul is just a shorter form of Konstantinoupoli or Konstantiniyye and during the Ottoman period this name (nickname) of the city was never used officially. The names Asitane, Konstantiniyye, Dersaadet ( The Gate of the Empire) were used during the Ottoman period. The official use of the name Istanbul is quite a modern thing. Besides, the city Byzantion did not start as a Greek city, there was already a thousands of year old Thracian city there before it was colonised by the Greeks. This name root Byza is very common in location names in Thrace, which make scholars suggest that it could be the name of an important Thracian king before the arrival of the Greeks to the territory.

[theculturedjinni]

This is a very good short overview video. Though if I shall be pedantic, they did not change the name of constatinople officially until the time of Ataturk and the city was refered to as Constantinople القسطنطينية al-qusTanTiiniiya in official Ottoman documents.