This guide does not say a word about where to spend the night in Istanbul, what to eat and what to buy. And yet it is necessary to take it with you. Sergei Ivanov, a specialist in the history and culture of Byzantium, professor at the Higher School of Economics, invites the reader to make a double journey - in space and in time. The book takes you down the streets of Istanbul to the remains of Constantinople, still holding the memory of its grandeur, beauty and diversity. Despite the indifference of the Turkish authorities to these unique monuments, they are still able to tell a lot to an attentive observer - the stories are dramatic and sad, funny and touching, full of adventure. The pages of the guide will be resurrected before our eyes The city, as if it had not disappeared anywhere: it will be led through palaces, monasteries, hospitals and schools, introduced to emperors and patriarchs, generals and eunuchs, merchants and artisans, saints and harlots, carried away into the whirlpool of stormy and eventful life that once boiled in the capital of the great empire.