Another day at sea on the way to Istanbul, a beautiful day on this beautiful ship.
We are following the course of every Black Sea trader in history. The Silk Road from the East ended on the north and east coast of the Black Sea and transferred the cargo to ships that crossed the sea to the Bosporus at Polis-Constantinople-Istanbul and then west. Surprisingly, 70% of the cargo of the Silk Road was slaves.
Trading, access to the east and west, access to the sea, the fishing and the farming--these have all been motives behind the significant violence here since the Scythian first arrived. Greeks, Sarmatians, Huns and Tatars and more recently Catherine the Great, Nazis and Communists. The last of the Russian White Army evacuated from here and sailed west, signaling the end of the Czars and the beginning of another era of error.
Throughout it all has been the city on the Bosporus.
We are following the course of every Black Sea trader in history. The Silk Road from the East ended on the north and east coast of the Black Sea and transferred the cargo to ships that crossed the sea to the Bosporus at Polis-Constantinople-Istanbul and then west. Surprisingly, 70% of the cargo of the Silk Road was slaves.
Trading, access to the east and west, access to the sea, the fishing and the farming--these have all been motives behind the significant violence here since the Scythian first arrived. Greeks, Sarmatians, Huns and Tatars and more recently Catherine the Great, Nazis and Communists. The last of the Russian White Army evacuated from here and sailed west, signaling the end of the Czars and the beginning of another era of error.
Throughout it all has been the city on the Bosporus.
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