A visitor leaving the exposition "De Byzance à Istanbul: Un Port pour Deux Continents" (on until January 25, 2010 at Le Grand Palais in Paris) cannot help but wonder why some European leaders (the  French President among them) are so reluctant to open up the doors of the EU to Turkey.

While Istanbul  is no longer formally Turkey's capital, the city was for so many centuries a metropolis bridging the geographical, cultural and religious gap between Europe and the Orient  as well as  between  Christianity and Islam.  Istanbul and Turkey's vast Asian territory could well serve again as a much needed hyphen between East and West.  And, if necessary, play the role of  bulwark against potential future threats from the east.

If one bases what Europeans like to call their "shared heritage" mostly on the influence of Greek and Roman civilizations and on Christianity, Istanbul  - founded by the Greeks in the 7th century BCE and later  occupied by the Romans - was  "European" centuries ahead of Northern Europe.  And as far as a Christian heritage goes,  the city became a pillar of Christianity  much earlier than, say, Sweden , where the  first  missionary only arrived around the year 830.  

Declines and Renaissances

"De Byzance à Istanbul" presents a chronological tale of the city and  illustrates most vividly the ups and downs in its long history.  The exposition begins with a large screen showing how our prehistoric  ancestors migrated from Asia into Europe before the landmasses had split and the Dardanelles and Bosphorus waterways appeared. Since that time, the site has never ceased to be at the crossroads of  maritime as well as overland exchanges and the city always reveled in its role as a cosmopolitan melting-pot.

Its strategic position has been coveted by Persians, Athenians, Spartiates, Macedonians, Huns, Vikings, Slavs, Goths and Arabs - among others.  It became the capital  of the  Eastern Roman Empire  in 330.  It was sacked by Crusaders in 1204  and , finally,  became the center of the Ottoman empire in the mid 15th century.  Indeed, Byzantium-Constantinople-Istanbul has known   many declines and just as many renaissances.  Newly arrived potentates added to the beauty of the city - sometimes after first destroying it.

"Across from the Blind"

Over the years, traces  of neolithic settlements dating as far back as 6500 BCE have been found along the edges of waterways in and around what is now Istanbul.  The last important archeological discovery  occurred in 2004 when an underwater tunnel of for the metro was being dug.  In the last section of the exposition, visitors  are invited to watch videos and admire objects from the recent excavation.

Legend has it that  the Oracle of Delphi instructed Byzas, a Greek from Megara, to take to the sea and lay the foundations of a city  "across from the country of the blind".   After lengthy explorations, Byzas  discovered a perfect, natural harbor on the European side of the Bosphorus - across from a settlement of Chalcedonians, the "blind" who had not seen the far more suitable site on the other side of the water.   Around 660 BCE Byzas laid the grounds to Byzantium, again according to legend.   A bronze coin exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris shows Byzas as a bearded, stern-looking man with a sharp profile.