Istanbul Architecture – Murat Gül, Trevor Howells – Watermark Press

This is the latest in the popular Watermark Architectural Guides series, covering the architecture of this huge and ancient city from Byzantine ruins to modern high-rise. Istanbul is one of the world's most exciting and culturally diverse cities and, like most great cities, it has architecture to match. Covering more than two millennia its buildings range from the lofty and many-tiered aqueducts built by the Romans to Ottoman mosques, with their attendant bath houses, schools and hospitals. In Beyoglu, across from the Golden Horn, banks, arcades, embassies and apartment complexes reflect foreign influences. Here disparate architectural styles such as Belle Epoque, Venetian, Gothic and Art Deco all live on in surprisingly happy harmony. Elsewhere along the Bosphorus visitors can see the Baroque palaces of the Sultans and charming yali - quintessentially Turkish waterside mansions, but looming in the background are the skyscrapers, bridges and other elements of a tech-smart metropolis. This book records all Istanbul's architecture, both historic and modern, with area maps, text and images to provide a comprehensive guide to this exotic city.