Golden Horn owns one of the most famous legends in Istanbul. Many Istanbulites believe that on the bottom of the Golden Horn is to be found a rich bed of gold, sunk into the silt and soil that has accumulated over the ages. It’s believed that as it became certain that the Turks would capture the city in 1453, the affluent nobles and other citizens decided to throw their gold and riches into the Golden Horn – including, apparently, the entire treasury of the Byzantine Empire! – rather than see it fall into the hands of the Turks. It’s believed the boat laden with the private riches of the emperor also sank as it was trying to flee.

Living Legends of PERA...While Beyoglu is Istanbul’s infamous refuge for society’s misfits and outcasts, most of the personalities are your plain people & its street food sellers make the real characters of it.

Pera was the most cosmopolitan and Westernised district of the once Ottoman capital. Its history shows how through a distinct culture of social interaction transcending ethnic and religious lines, and a code and manner of dealing with strangers Pera stood at the juncture between the East and the West and opened up the prospects for the development of 'cosmopolitan civility' - a form of social relations between strangers, a coexistence and openness to unassimilated others...