B – Bosphorus Strait: Where Europe Meets Asia on Water – A cruise through one of the world’s most strategic waterways.

 

B is all about the Bosphorus Strait which I actually had to google while we were on our trip!! Are you familiar with the Bosphorus Strait? 

According to Worldatlas.com, “Bosphorus Strait is one of the few straits that act as a boundary between two continents and at the same time divides a country into two portions. It has played an important role in politics, commerce, and European history.”

It is evidently the narrowest strait in the world and measures just a little over 2 miles at its widest. I'm writing from Alabama . . . so I converted kilometers to miles (3.7 to 2.29 - someone let me know if my calculation is not correct).

The Bosphorous Strait is a boundary between Europe (Turkey) and Asia and I thought it was so cool when they told us we would be standing on two different continents in one day!

As you can see, from the map above, The Bosphorus Strait (which I just noticed is spelled Bosporus like in ancient Greece!) connects the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea. Just FYI - I also had to google Sea of Marmara while on the trip.

This is why I love to travel. I see parts of the world I know nothing about and learn something new about a very strategic waterway and the land around it.

The water was very calm. We left port and traveled at night so we didn't get to see much of the scenery - we were asleep!

The Bosphorus played and still plays such a strategic role in commerce and politics, too. This is from the WorldAtlas.com site, too: "Its control has been a subject of conflicts, including the Russo-Turkish War and the Battle of Gallipoli. In the 5th Century BC, it facilitated grain export from Scythia to Athens and allowed the Greek city to maintain an alliance with several other cities, including Byzantium and Megarian. In the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire constructed a fortification on both sides of the strait; Rumelihisari and Anaduluhisari. The increasing European influence over the strait in the 19th century led to the coding of rules governing its use."

Here are some photos of the Strait while we were still in port. It was grey and cloudy when we boarded the boat, but it was still pleasant enough to sit outside.

First of all, do you love to travel? Do you love learning new things? Do you have to google names and places while traveling or are you already familiar with the places from your own pre-trip research?

P.S. Today's blog title was generated by AI - but tweaked by me.