In this book Freya Stark displays that incomparable gift of hers: the ability to travel in time as well as in space. Taking present-day Istanbul (70ies) as the starting-point of her historical journey, she leads us back into the past. She lets the earlist known community in the area tell its story, and then traces the successive imprints left on Turkey by the Greeks, the Romans, the early Christians, the Seljuks and Crusaders, and the Ottomans. There are not many good travel books like this one nowadays.