Istanbul (not Constantinople) is the fifth largest city in the world. Part of the city lies in Europe and part in Asia. Islam is the predominate (98%) religion of Turkey. Turkey was the birthplace of much of Christianity. The mosques of Turkey still have many Christian artifacts–murals, art work, statues and the like. I saw no evidence of any defacing or other anti-Christian sentiment. Everywhere we went we saw signs of Turkish patriotism. We visited many mosques, palaces, museums and market places. This is a shoppers paradise. If you wanted to buy gold items, all of the shops the shops that sold gold are located within a block or two of each other–similarly for silver, cookware, carpet, shirts and so on…..
We spent two nights in Istanbul, then traveled to Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. Our first stop was at Topkapi Palace. This place was enormous–all the sights and impressions of what it might be like to live in a palace–including the quarters of the concubine. We only spent one night in Ankara and then drove to Cappadocia.