Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities

Capital of a New Empire (1x3)

: 19, 2013

Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore charts how Istanbul rose to become one of Islam's most powerful cities, and visits the mosques and palaces built by the Ottoman sultans, sharing stories of royal concubines and murderous bodyguards along the way. He also examines how the ancient city was transformed by the secular vision of the first President of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the 20th century after he launched a programme of revolutionary social and political reform.