infrastruktura: Istanbul

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, a megacity, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical center. With a population of over 15 million, it is home to 18% of the population of Turkey. Istanbul is among the largest cities in Europe and in the world by population. It is a city on two continents; about two-thirds of its population live in Europe and the rest in Asia. Istanbul straddles the Bosphorus – one of the world's busiest waterways – in northwestern Turkey, between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its area of 5,461 square kilometers (2,109 mi2) is coterminous with Istanbul Province. The city developed to become one of the most significant cities in history. By…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 72

Aleppo is a city in northern Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the country's most populous governorate. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents as of 2021, it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and the second-largest city in the country, being the most populous until it was surpassed by Damascus, the capital of Syria. Aleppo is also the largest city in Syria's northern governorates and one of the largest cities in the Levant region. Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it may have been inhabited since the sixth millennium BC. Excavations at Tell as-Sawda and Tell al-Ansari, just south of the old city of Aleppo, s…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region on the east coast of the Black Sea. It is located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia and is generally regarded as part of Europe. It is bordered to the north and northeast by Russia; to the west by the Black Sea, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. It has a population of 3.9 million, of which over a third live in Tbilisi, the capital and largest city. Georgians, who are native to the region and constitute the majority of the population, are ethno-linguistically distinct from their neighboring nations and primarily speak Georgian, a Kartvelian language that has no relation to any other language f…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Ancient trade routes were long-distance networks used in the ancient world to exchange goods, ideas, cultures, and technologies between civilizations. The term can also be used to refer to trade over land or water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long-distance arteries, which may further be connected to smaller networks of commercial and noncommercial transportation routes. Among notable trade routes was the Amber Road, which served as a dependable network for long-distance trade. Maritime trade along the Spice Route became…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) is a project to create an integrated freight railway network across Europe and Asia. The project is of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). The project was initiated in the 1950s, with the objective of providing a continuous 8,750 miles (14,080 km) rail link between Singapore and Istanbul, Turkey, with possible further connections to Europe and Africa. At the time shipping and air travel were not as well developed, and the project promised to significantly reduce shipping times and costs between Europe and Asia. Progress in developing the TAR was hindered by political and economic obstacles throughout the 1960s,…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

High-speed rail (HSR) has developed in Europe as an increasingly popular and efficient means of transport. The first high-speed rail lines on the continent, built in the late 20th century, improved travel times on intra-national corridors. Since then, several countries have built extensive high-speed networks, and there are now several cross-border high-speed rail links. As of 2025, several European countries — among them France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom — are connected to a cross-border high-speed railway network. Spain operates the largest high-speed rail network in Europe with 3,973 km (2,469 mi) and the second-largest in the world,…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Asia ( AY-zhə, UK also AY-shə) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilisations. Its estimated 4.8 billion people in 2025 constituted approximately 59% of the world's population. Asia shares the landmass of Eurasia with Europe, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. In general terms, it is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the north by the Arctic Oce…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The history of Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire covers the period from the capture of Constantinople by the Turks on 29 May 1453 to the abolition of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 and the transfer of the capital of Turkey to Ankara on 13 October 1923. For almost five centuries Istanbul was the capital of a vast state that took shape in the 14th–16th centuries as a result of the conquest campaigns of the Turkish sultans. The borders of the Ottoman Empire encompassed territories in three parts of the world – Europe, Asia and Africa. Thus, the ancient city on the shores of the Bosphorus once again became a political and economic centre of world importance. Gradually, Istanbul regained its fame a…

Evidence: — • authority: 88

Introduction: Failures East and West – Cultural Encounters between East Asia and Europe. The introduction maps out the field of East-West encounters with a particular focus on failure in such encounters. It defines crucial terms (such as failure and encounter) and locates the collection of essays in the emerging field of failure studies. Furthermore, it reflects on how to develop a theory of failure, and discusses which questions a study of failures in literature and cultural encounters needs to address. It suggests that failure must be understood as constructed, as something that is not inherent in an event but attributed to it. Failure does not exist as an objective category or a simple f…